Trump administration threatens Anne Arundel schools over gender identity policy

The Trump administration on Monday threatened to punish Anne Arundel County’s school system with legal action or the loss of federal funding for allegedly withholding information about a student’s gender identity and transition from the child’s parents.

The U.S. Education and Justice departments together determined that the suburban Maryland district treats students’ gender identities as confidential medical information that cannot be shared with parents, in violation of federal student privacy law, according to a news release. A federal lawsuit filed against the district earlier this month made similar claims.

“As a mother and a grandmother, it is unconscionable that any school district would hide the most sensitive information about children in their care from their own parents,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement. “This is not only an affront to basic moral principles, but also to parents’ rights under federal law.”

The school district did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Bob Mosier, a district spokesperson, previously declined to comment on the lawsuit, which was filed by an attorney at the America First Legal Foundation. The conservative nonprofit was founded by Stephen Miller, an adviser to President Donald Trump.

LGBTQIA+ advocacy groups have said these kinds of probes and lawsuits are meant to be inflammatory and grab headlines.

The federal government began investigating after the Education Department’s Student Privacy Policy Office received complaints from Anne Arundel County parents who say the school allowed their child to use a different name and pronouns without notifying them or obtaining their consent. The parents say they learned of the change after receiving an email from a school staff member that referred to the student by a masculine name.

“When the parents approached school administrators about the matter, the principal declined to provide details about the student’s ‘gender transition,’” the news release states. “These policies and practices unlawfully impeded the parents’ ability to exercise their FERPA rights when it mattered most.”

The Trump administration said it also found that an Ann Arbor, Michigan, school system policy requiring school employees to hide a child’s gender identity from their parents likely violates federal privacy law. The district similarly faces threats of legal action or loss of federal funding. Officials said these enforcement actions should be a signal to other school systems that the government will not tolerate any information about students being withheld from their parents.

This story will be updated.