Montgomery County Public Schools accused of keeping gender transitions secret from parents
ROCKVILLE, MD - July 09: Montgomery county school officials give reporters a tour of College Gardens elementary to show room arrangements, sanitizing stations, and other measures that the system hopes will prevent the spread of the coronavirus when s
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. - A Maryland school district is coming under fire for its gender identity policies as a conservative legal group urges the Trump administration to investigate.
What we know:
American First Legal has filed a formal federal complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Education against Montgomery County Public Schools for violating the First and Fourteenth amendments and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
The complaint claims that the district's 2025-2026 "Gender Identity in Montgomery County Public Schools" handbook "establishes a systematic policy of facilitating students’ social ‘gender transitions’ while actively concealing this information from parents who are deemed insufficiently ‘supportive’ by school staff."
Those changes include names, pronouns, school records, bathroom and locker room access, and overnight field trip sleeping arrangements.
Dig deeper:
The complaint alleges that MCPS violated FERPA, free speech and due process by directing staff to withhold gender transition information, excluding parents from "critical decisions" about their children, discriminating against parents who disagree with "radical gender ideology" and depriving parents of the right to direct their children's upbringing.
AFL is calling on the DOJ and Department of Education to require MCPS to rescind the policies, restore parents' access to educational records and fully comply with federal law.
Trump administration ends agreements to protect transgender students in several schools
The Education Department says it has terminated agreements with five school districts and a college aimed at upholding rights and protections for transgender students.
The other side:
MCPS has yet to comment on the complaint, citing policy not to comment on pending litigation, according to FOX News.
The district's 14-page handbook, which aims to provide a "culture of respect and equity," with policies for any student who wants to identify as "transgender or "gender-nonconforming."
Its "Gender Support Plan" ensures students have "equal access and equal opportunity to participate in all programs and activities at school," protecting them from "gender-based discrimination at school."
As part of protecting the student's privacy, the handbook claims that sharing such "confidential medical information" with parents or guardians is a FERPA violation. Teachers are instructed to speak with the student to "ascertain the level of support the student either receives or anticipates receiving from home."
Supreme Court skeptical over MCPS' no opt-out policy on LGBTQ books for kids
A group of Montgomery County parents from different religious backgrounds appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday, challenging the school board’s no opt-out policy for LGBTQ-themed books in elementary school classrooms.
"Matters of gender identity can be complex and may involve familial conflict. If this is the case, and support is required, the Department of Student Conduct and Appeals (DSCA) should be contacted. In such cases, staff will support the development of a student-led plan that works toward inclusion of the family, if possible, taking safety concerns into consideration as well as student privacy, and recognizing that providing support for a student is critical, even when the family is nonsupportive."
What they're saying:
"Montgomery County Public Schools has constructed an elaborate system designed to keep parents in the dark about some of the most consequential decisions affecting their own children," said Ian Prior, Senior Counsel at America First Legal. "Federal law and the Constitution are unambiguous: parents have the fundamental right to direct the upbringing of their children and to access their children’s education records. MCPS’s policies turn both of those principles on their head."
The Source: Information from this article was sourced from American First Legal and FOX News.