Three major school districts are heading to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to answer for policies that critics say kept parents deliberately in the dark about their children’s gender identity changes at school.
The House Committee on Education and the Workforce has summoned the superintendents of Chicago Public Schools, San Francisco Unified School District, and Loudoun County (VA) Public Schools to testify at a hearing on parental rights and inappropriate classroom content.
The hearing follows formal complaints filed at both the Department of Justice and the Department of Education by America First Legal (AFL), a conservative legal watchdog. AFL accused all three districts of constructing policies that allow students to change their names and pronouns at school without notifying parents.
“These school districts have constructed elaborate systems to hide what is happening to children from the very people who have a fundamental right to know: their parents,” said AFL senior counsel Ian Prior in a statement obtained by The New York Post. “Parents are not the enemy, and the era of school districts secretly facilitating life-altering decisions for children behind their parents’ backs must come to an end.”
Chicago Public Schools’ published policy states that “all students have a right to self-determination,” which includes the right to keep gender identity “confidential at school.” A separate policy toolkit from the district states explicitly that parents are not to be informed of any gender-related changes unless the child consents.
AFL also cited Chicago’s school system for allowing transgender females to compete in girls’ sports and access women-only facilities, including bathrooms and locker rooms.
San Francisco Unified faces similar allegations. AFL’s complaint against the district accuses it of pushing “gender ideology” in classroom instruction “without parental notice, consent, or an opportunity to opt out.” The complaint further argues the policy “likely runs afoul of the Free Exercise Clause” by elevating the interests of some students without offering objecting families any comparable accommodation.
Loudoun County Public Schools, which drew national attention several years ago over its handling of a sexual assault case connected to its transgender bathroom policy, is also named in the AFL complaints.
AFL is urging the Trump administration to consider pulling federal funding from all three districts. The group cited the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits schools that discriminate on the basis of sex from receiving federal dollars.
“Congress and the executive branch need to take a serious look at these schools,” Prior said, “and take every action available to remedy these legal violations.”
