Federal officials have launched an investigation into California Department of Education for having retained information on changes in their child’s gender identity, creating a confrontation between the State and President Trump, with billions of dollars in federal funding potentially at stake.
The survey, announced Thursday morning by the American Department of Education, aims at a California law, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in July, which prohibits schools from automatically notify families of students and students’ identity changes and protects teachers from reprisals to support the rights of transgender students. Federal officials argue that Californian law illegally violates parents to receive school files related to their children.
The secretary of the American education department, Linda McMahon, said that children were better protected when no information is retained for parents.
“Teachers and school advisers should not be advised the minors entrusted to their custody on consecutive decisions concerning their sexual identity and their mental health. This responsibility and this privilege are incumbent on a parent or a loved one of confidence,” said McMahon in a statement. “It is not only immoral but also potentially in contradiction with federal law for Californian schools to hide crucial information on the well-being of a student of parents and tutors.”
The potential sanction is the loss of federal funds supervised by the Department of Education. These include $ 2.1 billion per year in funding to compensate for the effects of family poverty and $ 1.33 billion to help education for disabled students.
Supt. From public education, Tony Thurmond said Thursday that Californian law had responded to an urgent concern for vulnerable students.
“Our students must be safe to learn,” said Thurmond. “I have heard so many students and families whose security has been affected by forced exit policies. To our young people and to LGBTQ +families, I want to make sure you get along with us as hard as we can hear you: you are heard, you are protected and you are loved. ”
The Governor’s office was quick to turn to the Washington administration, in particular by referring to Mass and the layoffs commissioned by Trump in the United States Department of Education.
“Parents continue to have full and guaranteed access to the training files of their students, as required by federal law,” said spokesperson Elana Ross. “If the United States Ministry of Education still had staff, it would be a rapid investigation – all they would have to do is read the law signed by the governor.”
The president has issued a series of anti-transgender orders and policies, including directives that recognize only two organic sexes, call for funding or even the criminalization of medical care affirming sexes for young people and prohibitions against transgender from the bathrooms and sports teams that do not comply with their gender identified at birth. In an order, entitled “to put an end to radical indoctrination in kindergarten in the 12th year”, Trump aimed at school policies intended to support transgender, non-binary and other non-conforming students.
California is already involved in litigation linked to education against the Trump administration aimed at arresting the dismantling of the Federal Department of Education and reductions in financing teacher training grants.
And federal surveys have also been opened on individual school districts, Californian colleges and school leagues.
The Californian law, which prohibits “forced outing”, was approved after a handful of school councils have adopted policies forcing educators to inform parents if their child changes their names or pronouns, or if students ask to use facilities or participate in programs that do not correspond to their sex in official files.
“Parental notification” policies have been divided across the country. On the one hand, defenders of LGBTQ + students say that students need – and have a legal right – to explore this personal problem in a safe space and to deserve the opportunity to decide when and what to say to their parents. However, many parents feel that they have the right without compromise to know if their child modifies their gender identity or explore the possibility – and schools must tell them.
McMahon, in his declaration, suggested that the notification of parents was a necessary step to prevent harmful indoctrination by school staff.
“The agency launched today’s investigation to vigorously protect the rights of parents and ensure that students are not victims of a radical transgender ideology which often leads to family alienation and irreversible medical interventions,” said McMahon.
Many educators reject such characterizations – saying that teachers do not try to recruit students to modify their identity. They insist that they are rather trying to accept students as they are and to encourage tolerance.
The Trump administration probe is the last revolutionary stage of the United States Ministry of Education, which is under its orders to stop as soon as possible, even while upsetting the status quo for kindergarten in the 12th year and higher education.
Thursday’s action is based on the interpretation by the Trump Administration of the Federal Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, or Ferpa, which protects the privacy of the education files of students of children’s gardens by higher education.
The American education department has long been an office to deal with the complaints linked to the FERPA submitted by parents and others. It is typical that such cases revolve around personal information which is poorly released or insufficiently protected.
This case is different, said the spokesman for the American education department Madi Biedermann.
“The most routine cases of Ferpa investigations in the past have been an inappropriate disclosure of information on the privacy of students, while this survey concerns a lack of disclosure of privacy information, in particular to keep parents out of the loop,” said Biedermann.
Also under the FERPA, a school must offer a parent the possibility of inspecting and reviewing the education files of their child in a reasonable time, but not more than 45 calendar days after a request. A parent can also request a modification from these files – and ensure that this request was part of the permanent file if the school does not accept.
The senior officials of the department said that the use of the authority of the application of the Ferpa law in this way could be “unprecedented”, although they also insisted that it was well within the framework of the established law.
“States’ laws do not prevail over federal laws and educational entities that receive federal funding are subject to FERPA,” said a statement from the Ministry of Education. “Ferpa violation can lead to the end of federal funding of an educational entity.”
The Trump administration seems to use Ferpa in a new way, said Leroy Rooker, a principal researcher at the American sanitation. Collegial registrars and admission agentswhich offers training on how to comply with FERPA.
The FERPA’s mandate to share educational files with a parent is “based on a request,” said Rooker, former director of the US office of the Ministry of Education who managed Ferpa Enforcement. “Thus, school districts are not required to provide information to parents who are not requested by the parent.”
At the same time, Rooker added, once the parent of a minor made a request to inspect the school files, this request must be honored. California’s law or policy cannot provide general confidentiality that would exclude parents: “You cannot prohibit parents from having access to their child’s training files if the request arrives.”
The California Department of Education said that the State law, also known as the 1955 Assembly bill, is already taking into account the FERPA.
“AB 1955 prohibits local educational agencies from imposing that the staff discloses the gender identity of pupils to parents without consent of students, unless otherwise required by the law of the state or the federal government”, according to a press release. “AB 1955 does not impose no non-divulgation. On the basis of the clear language of the two laws, there is no conflict between AB 1955 and Ferpa, which allows parents’ access to the written files of their student on request. ”
In a few hours, the heads of state school district, including the Surint of Los Angeles schools. Alberto Carvalho, tried to understand how this conflict of state versus-feet would take place for them.
“I am sure that Los Angeles Unified will be part of this survey, given our size and our policies,” said Carvalho. “So we will collaborate with the State in the preparation of its response … from a protection point of view for our students and our workforce.”
The staff of the United States Department of Education said that the investigation had been launched in response to a complaint submitted by the law firm California Justice Center.
The Californian law “claims to recognize a non -existent privacy in their parents’ minors,” said the complaint.
Before the entry into force of the law of the State, the Chino valley,, The districts of Temecula Valley, Murrieta Valley and South Orange of California had adopted parents’ notification policies in recent years. In northern California, the Anderson Union high school district in Shasta County as well as Rocklin Unified and Dry Creek Joint Elementary School District in the county of placing have also adopted similar rules. At least eight states have adopted similar laws, according to the Advancement Project project.
Times Jaweed Kaleem and Kate Sequeira staff have contributed to this report.
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