NEW: Trump Admin Readies Action Against Secretive K-12 Gender Policies

Concerned parents in the Haverford School District are urging administrators to re-visit its “Diversity & Inclusion” policies which, among other things, instructs staff members to keep a student’s “gender identity” secret from parents. Critics argue that such policies — which are currently facing legal challenges from the Trump Administration — place unnecessary pressure on teachers and staff.

At issue is the Democrat-controlled school board’s Gender Expansive & Transgender Students (GET) policy. Like many districts across the country, Haverford’s school board maintains that keeping information like “gender identity” from parents is necessary to prevent potential abuse or harassment.

“In general, the prerogative to assert the rights of the gender expansive and transgender students belong to the student and do not require additional parental/guardian consent unless the assertion of a right delineated in these guidelines implicate parental/guardian rights under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act or other applicable law,” reads the policy’s guidelines.

The guidance and its application is further defined under the GET policy’s Administrative Regulations sections, which includes instructions for teachers and staff members.

“All persons, including students, have a right to privacy. This includes keeping a student’s actual or perceived gender identity and expression private. Therefore, school personnel should not disclose information about a GET student’s gender identity and expression to others, including the student’s parents/guardians and/or other school personnel, unless legally required to do so or the information is necessary in order to accommodate the student or ensure the student’s safety or unless the student has authorized such disclosure or explicitly disclosed their gender in the school setting,” reads the first bullet point under the policy’s guidelines.

The Haverford School District also mandates teachers and staff to comply with students’ preferred pronouns, regardless of any input from a parent or guardian. “Students shall be addressed by the name and pronouns that correspond to their gender identity without obtaining a court order, changing their school records or obtaining parent/legal guardian permission,” the policy’s “Names/Pronouns” section reads.

“Students shall be known by the name and the gender by which the person identifies. However, there may be situations (e.g., communications with family, official state or federal records, and assessment data) where it may be necessary and recommended for staff to be informed of the student’s legal name and gender. In these situations, staff should prioritize the safety, confidentiality, and respect of the student in a manner that affirms the law,” the section continues. “If school personnel are unsure how a student wants to be addressed in communications to the home or in conferences with parents/legal guardians, they may privately ask the student. For communications with a student’s parent/legal guardian, school personnel should refer to the guidelines outlined herein regarding ‘Privacy and Confidentiality.'”

The U.S. Department of Education has opened investigations into school districts in California and Maine over alleged Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) violations related to gender policies.

On March 26, 2025, the Trump Administration opened a probe into the California Department of Education over Assembly Bill 1955, which prohibits school personnel from disclosing a student’s gender identity to parents without the student’s consent. The Department argues that this law conflicts with FERPA, which grants parents the right to access their children’s educational records, including information related to gender identity.

Districts like Haverford and others with similar policies have long cited FERPA in crafting guidelines on gender policies. “In general, the prerogative to assert the rights of the gender expansive and transgender students belong to the student and do not require additional parental/guardian consent unless the assertion of a right delineated in these guidelines implicate parental/guardian rights under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act or other applicable law,” the policy states.

In arguing that transgender students have a right to hide their gender identity from parents, districts often defer to legal theories advanced by groups like the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN), according to an analysis from Michael Torres of the City Journal.

“Among the most important are that children have a federally guaranteed right to privacy from their parents in school, that the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution establishes children’s right to transition without the consent or knowledge of their parents, and that Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 protects transgender students from the ‘harassment’ of school districts “outing” them to non-compliant parents,” Torres explained. “The Title IX theory, the most chilling, is supported by the radically progressive notion that parents represent a danger to the welfare of transgender children until they prove otherwise by providing ‘affirmation.'”

He further noted that school districts that adopt such policies are generally operating under the idea that embracing such theories is legal, but that divulging such information without the child’s consent is illegal and possibility detrimental to the student’s safety.

In one example from Dover, Pennsylvania, a mother expressed outrage with her local school board after finding out that middle school staff had been addressing her 12-year-old daughter with male pronouns for more than a year. School officials even sent the child to a hospital for evaluation without informing her parents.

When confronted, the board told the mother that there was a law against informing her. “No such law exists, however—and the legal theories pushed by activist groups to legitimize secrecy policies are baseless,” Torres wrote.

LeRoy Rooker, former director of the U.S. Department of Education’s Family Policy Compliance Office, has argued the same. “There’s absolutely nothing in FERPA that would say they would violate FERPA by disclosing that to parents. The violation would be in not disclosing it if the parents request it,” he told Bethesda Magazine in 2021 regarding a question about a district withholding information about a child’s transition from parents.

“A minor’s right to privacy is traditionally held by the parents,” Will Estrada, president of the Parental Rights Foundation, said regarding a FERPA-citing gender policy crafted by a California school district. He cited the 2000 Supreme Court case Troxel v. Tommie Granville, in which Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, citing the Fourteenth Amendment, affirmed, “The liberty interest at issue in this case—the interest of parents in the care, custody, and control of their children—is perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests recognized by this Court.”

The Trump Administration is threatening to withhold federal funding from districts that refuse to amend their secretive gender policies. Congress passed FERPA in 1974 to protect children’s privacy in a manner that ensures parents can access their children’s school records to gain information and insight necessary to act as proper guardians of their children’s well-being. FERPA, as well as the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA), were intended to shelter families from invasion of their privacy—not to insulate schools from transparency and accountability to parents,” Secretary McMahon wrote in her March guidance.

“Parents should not have to navigate a complex process to exercise their rights under FERPA or PPRA. Schools should not treat parents as enemies just for wanting to know about the mental and physical health and safety of their own children.”

Current Education Secretary Linda McMahon speaks at CPAC in 2018
Photo: Gage Skidmore

As pressure on districts with similar gender policies ramps up from the administration, some parents are concerned that such regulations place unnecessary pressure on teachers and staff. “Imagine being a teacher or school employee right now with these policy guidelines hanging over your head. The policy guidelines direct them to not divulge to parents and guardians important information about their own kids,” one Haverford High School parent told Trending Politics News on the condition of anonymity,

“That’s crazy, right? Who thought this was a good idea? This is just an added pressure for teachers and one which should not exist. I don’t believe teachers are all on board but I don’t know if we’ll ever really know. I hope they are able to find the courage to speak up.”