More than 1,000 school districts have “Transgender/Gender Nonconforming Policies” that allow schools to hide a child’s sexual identity confusion from parents. Parents Defending Education (PDE) reported the data, which includes 18,335 schools and more than 10.7 million students.
PDE’s research shows how schools across the country have embraced gender ideology and are indoctrinating children into false beliefs. These include ideas such as: People can change from one sex to the other, “gender” is different from biological sex, and there are an infinite number of “gender identities.”
Schools across the country are making a practice of hiding things from parents. And the large list underscores the importance of parents’ involvement in their children’s education.
PDE provides links to each district’s transgender policy and includes districts in 39 states, but the organization warns that the list is not comprehensive. The organization also provides a “Back to School Checklist 2023-2024,” which suggests parents question their school district about “gender support policies,” and it lists “Questions to Ask Your School about Gender Ideology and Gender Policy.”
PDE describes itself as “a national grassroots organization working to reclaim our schools from activists imposing harmful agendas. The organization exposes schools that politicize and sexualize children, and it provides resources for parents to respond.
Not only do the “Transgender Support Policies” encourage staff to hide information from parents, they also typically let students use restrooms and locker rooms of the opposite sex. They allow students to participate in sports and school activities based on their chosen “gender identity,” rather than their biological sex.
The guidelines usually require teachers and staff to address students by their chosen transgender name and pronoun, but they tell those teachers and staff to use the student’s legal name when talking with parents – in case the parents don’t know about the student’s “transition” at school.
PDE released the new list even as states and school districts battle over transgender policies.
In California, the Chino Valley Unified School District adopted a “Parental Notification Policy” which requires school administrators and staff to notify parents when they become “aware that a student is requesting to be identified or treated as a gender … other than the student’s biological sex or gender listed on the student’s birth certificate.”
The policy flies in the face of California Department of Education guidance which states:
The right of transgender students to keep their transgender status private is grounded in California’s antidiscrimination laws as well as federal and state laws. Disclosing that a student is transgender without the student’s permission may violate California’s antidiscrimination law by increasing the student’s vulnerability to harassment and may violate the student’s right to privacy.
California Family Council, a Focus on the Family-allied organization, reported that state Attorney General Rob Bonta launched an investigation to determine whether Chino Valley’s policy “violated students’ civil rights.”
Murrieta Valley Unified School District, also in California, also came under scrutiny from the attorney general after adopting a similar parental notification policy.
In New Jersey, as previously reported by the Daily Citizen, Attorney General Matthew Platkin filed civil rights complaints against three school districts for policies that require school staff to inform parents when their children struggle with mental health issues, including sexual identity confusion.
Monmouth County Judge David Bauman recently issued a temporary injunction prohibiting the Manalapan-Englishtown, Marlboro and Middletown Township school districts from implementing those policies. He wrote:
The state has demonstrated a reasonable probability of success on its claim that the Amended Policies, if implemented, will have a disparate impact on transgender, gender nonconforming, and nonbinary youth.
In Virginia, pushback is coming from the other direction, as Fairfax, Alexandria, Prince William County and Arlington school districts have said they won’t comply with the state policies that require students to use restrooms based on their legal sex and that mandate parental consent if students change their name and pronouns at school.
The state policies were released in July. Governor Youngkin responded to the recalcitrant districts, stating:
The law is very clear that I issue model policies and local school districts have to adopt policies consistent with the model policies. And I would add to the fact that this is common sense.
We are very straightforwardly saying that first, parents are in charge of their children’s lives. The kids don’t belong to the state. They belong to parents and to families, and they have the ultimate say in decisions that that child is going to make with a parent, not with a bureaucrat.
The ongoing battle over parental rights in education makes it clear that elections matter. It’s encouraging to see grassroots organizations like Parents Defending Education, which was launched in 2021, working to expose indoctrination in schools and fighting back.
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