Newsom Under Fire: California Caught Concealing Gender Transitions from Parents

Paul Riverbank, 1/29/2026California schools clash with federal law over hiding students’ gender transitions from parents.

The issue hit a boiling point this week, and the fallout could rattle classrooms from Eureka to El Centro. Washington’s Department of Education, its Student Privacy Policy Office specifically, wrapped up an investigation into California’s Department of Education and landed on a verdict: The state is violating the nearly 50-year-old Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA. That’s the law making it clear—sometimes with frustrating simplicity, as school lawyers would say—that a parent has a right to see records about their child.

What kicked all this off? At its core: California’s AB 1955, signed recently and touted by supporters as a safeguard for vulnerable students. The law tells schools not to require adults to alert parents if a student starts changing their gender identity at school. But as federal regulators see it, that’s flatly at odds with FERPA, which says if it’s a record about a student—and a “gender support plan” certainly qualifies—parents can look at it, no exceptions for state policy or privacy concerns.

Guidance from Sacramento only added to the tangle. Districts, warned they could be sued for involving families without a student’s approval, responded with a patchwork of new rules. There’s at least one case where a school sent teachers detailed instructions on how to shield student info in parent-facing online portals—using nicknames, for instance, or leaving certain fields blank until after the final bell rang.

One senior education official in Washington didn’t mince words about what this meant in practice. “For years, the CDE’s policies and practices have created state-directed pressure for schools to violate FERPA by concealing student records about a child’s so-called gender transition from a child’s parents,” the official said.

Families seem caught in the crossfire. Some, like a mother in Southern California suing her child’s school, describe uncovering layers of concealed support for a kid’s transition—advice about chest binders, staff encouragement to use different pronouns—none of it disclosed at home. Other parents, including those with LGBTQ+ kids, say privacy policies can shield their children from genuine harm. Things are rarely tidy in real classrooms.

Internal documents and emails reviewed by federal investigators add an unvarnished look at the scale. Since just 2022, more than 300 students have had “gender support plans” on file that families could not access—at least, not without very specific and sometimes accidental requests. In some districts, staff were shown how to edit what parents see, modifying the landscape of how families interact with schools in sometimes barely perceptible ways.

The spotlight isn’t just on California. A national group, Parents Defending Education, claims over a thousand districts in the U.S.—touching some 12 million students—have adopted similar policies that allow or even instruct school staff to keep a student’s gender identity private from at least some adults at home.

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon issued an unusually blunt statement in response to California’s practices, calling them an “egregious abuse of authority.” She went so far as to accuse Governor Gavin Newsom of “failed leadership.” One particularly stinging allegation: that some school personnel “bragged” about orchestrating transitions for students while refusing to tell parents, trading strategies for keeping families in the dark.

Pressure on school administrators hasn’t only run in one direction. When Chino Valley Unified, for instance, passed a policy requiring notification of parents if a student requested a pronoun change, the state’s attorney moved to shut it down, arguing that students deserve privacy—even from their own parents—when disclosure could bring emotional or physical harm.

Yet federal officials were clear in their findings. “FERPA requires that schools provide access to all education records upon a parent’s request. Schools do not get to choose which records they feel like providing to parents and which ones they don’t.” It’s not negotiable, and California was given a blunt ultimatum: Fix this. Every district must be told that “gender support plans” are education records, fully accessible to parents upon request, or billions in federal funding could be lost.

Decisions made in Sacramento over the coming days mean real consequences for thousands of teachers, millions of students, and just as many families—on all sides of this deeply personal debate. For now, the collision between state and federal rules is less an abstract policy fight and more a day-by-day uncertainty that plays out in school offices, kitchen tables, and, increasingly, courtrooms across California.

The scene unfolding in California schools right now is anything but simple. Over the past several years, staff at dozens—maybe hundreds—of campuses quietly changed names in attendance systems or handed out paperwork titled “gender support plan,” all with instructions to keep these details from parents. Not every teacher felt comfortable going along, but many did, citing pressure from above.The issue hit a boiling point this week, and the fallout could rattle classrooms from Eureka to El Centro. Washington’s Department of Education, its Student Privacy Policy Office specifically, wrapped up an investigation into California’s Department of Education and landed on a verdict: The state is violating the nearly 50-year-old Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA. That’s the law making it clear—sometimes with frustrating simplicity, as school lawyers would say—that a parent has a right to see records about their child.What kicked all this off? At its core: California’s AB 1955, signed recently and touted by supporters as a safeguard for vulnerable students. The law tells schools not to require adults to alert parents if a student starts changing their gender identity at school. But as federal regulators see it, that’s flatly at odds with FERPA, which says if it’s a record about a student—and a “gender support plan” certainly qualifies—parents can look at it, no exceptions for state policy or privacy concerns.Guidance from Sacramento only added to the tangle. Districts, warned they could be sued for involving families without a student’s approval, responded with a patchwork of new rules. There’s at least one case where a school sent teachers detailed instructions on how to shield student info in parent-facing online portals—using nicknames, for instance, or leaving certain fields blank until after the final bell rang.One senior education official in Washington didn’t mince words about what this meant in practice. “For years, the CDE’s policies and practices have created state-directed pressure for schools to violate FERPA by concealing student records about a child’s so-called gender transition from a child’s parents,” the official said.Families seem caught in the crossfire. Some, like a mother in Southern California suing her child’s school, describe uncovering layers of concealed support for a kid’s transition—advice about chest binders, staff encouragement to use different pronouns—none of it disclosed at home. Other parents, including those with LGBTQ+ kids, say privacy policies can shield their children from genuine harm. Things are rarely tidy in real classrooms.Internal documents and emails reviewed by federal investigators add an unvarnished look at the scale. Since just 2022, more than 300 students have had “gender support plans” on file that families could not access—at least, not without very specific and sometimes accidental requests. In some districts, staff were shown how to edit what parents see, modifying the landscape of how families interact with schools in sometimes barely perceptible ways.The spotlight isn’t just on California. A national group, Parents Defending Education, claims over a thousand districts in the U.S.—touching some 12 million students—have adopted similar policies that allow or even instruct school staff to keep a student’s gender identity private from at least some adults at home.Secretary of Education Linda McMahon issued an unusually blunt statement in response to California’s practices, calling them an “egregious abuse of authority.” She went so far as to accuse Governor Gavin Newsom of “failed leadership.” One particularly stinging allegation: that some school personnel “bragged” about orchestrating transitions for students while refusing to tell parents, trading strategies for keeping families in the dark.Pressure on school administrators hasn’t only run in one direction. When Chino Valley Unified, for instance, passed a policy requiring notification of parents if a student requested a pronoun change, the state’s attorney moved to shut it down, arguing that students deserve privacy—even from their own parents—when disclosure could bring emotional or physical harm.Yet federal officials were clear in their findings. “FERPA requires that schools provide access to all education records upon a parent’s request. Schools do not get to choose which records they feel like providing to parents and which ones they don’t.” It’s not negotiable, and California was given a blunt ultimatum: Fix this. Every district must be told that “gender support plans” are education records, fully accessible to parents upon request, or billions in federal funding could be lost.Decisions made in Sacramento over the coming days mean real consequences for thousands of teachers, millions of students, and just as many families—on all sides of this deeply personal debate. For now, the collision between state and federal rules is less an abstract policy fight and more a day-by-day uncertainty that plays out in school offices, kitchen tables, and, increasingly, courtrooms across California.