California illegally hid K–12 students’ “gender transitions” from parents, the US Department of Education revealed in a bombshell decision Wednesday.
In a huge victory for parental rights in the Golden State, the DOE found that school officials were pressured by the state’s education department to “withhold information about students’ so-called ‘gender transitions’ from their parents.”
“Children do not belong to the State — they belong to families,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said.
Mom Aurora Regino unsuccessfully sued the Chico Unified School District for “socially transitioning” her child after she found out that her then-11-year-old daughter quietly transitioned from female to male with the help of her school.
“What the Department of Education has now confirmed is deeply disturbing but, sadly, not surprising. I know this firsthand,” Regino said in a statement Wednesday.
California allegedly violated federal law by hiding students’ gender transition from parents, a DOE probe has revealed. Jammer Gene – stock.adobe.com“My daughter’s school socially transitioned my daughter, without telling me what it was doing, and when I found out, they claimed they were legally prohibited from being honest with me about what they had done.
“No parent should ever be treated as the enemy. What happened to my family is now confirmed to be part of a broader, illegal pattern and parents deserve accountability.”
Some parents brought class-action lawsuits claiming they were kept in the dark about their child’s transition — including one mom who said her daughter was instructed by school officials to not inform her that kid switched her gender identity to trans.
School officials also showed the girl how to make chest binders, the feds said. School administrators later told the mother they didn’t need to tell her because of a parental secrecy policy.
DOE’s Student Privacy Policy Office added that the Golden State enforced the practice statewide, citing just one example.
Regino’s case was thrown out by a federal judge in Sacramento earlier this month, Courthouse News reported.
Various lawsuits from around California involve similar disturbing allegations that Regino had levied.
- Parents of a 7th-grade female student were never informed that their daughter was not identifying as a boy because of a school policy. Instead, the school “accepted and perpetuated” the child’s new gender expression, according to court documents. Experts testified that a sudden gender change could signal an underlying condition like gender dysphoria. The filings say the child’s mental health worsened without the parents’ knowledge, and they only learned about it after the child attempted suicide.
- A school counselor addressed issues of gender identity and sexuality with an 11-year-old fifth-grader who began struggling with depression and anxiety following her mother’s breast cancer diagnosis and the death of her grandfather. The student later began identifying as a boy and requesting a new name and pronouns. After the mother found out, she brought the child to a counselor to address the underlying depression and anxiety, which later dissipated the child’s decision to identify as a boy.
- Public school teachers in California also were pressured into hiding kids’ social transitions from their parents. In court filings, an applicant identified as Jane Roe, a devout Christian, said she could not in good conscience mislead parents about a child’s gender transition. She described years of stress teaching students whose gender identity she was required to affirm at school without notifying their parents. Roe says administrators threatened termination for noncompliance, and she witnessed colleagues placed on leave or forced out of their schools for resisting the policy.
- Similarly, another teacher said her religious convictions prevent her from deceiving parents about a child’s gender identity. When she raised concerns with administrators, she was told she might have to find another job.
- Court documents also cite expert testimony from Dr. Erica Brady, who described an autistic boy who began questioning his gender after believing liking the color pink meant he must be a girl. Dr. Brady said the child’s autism caused him to think about gender in rigid, all-or-nothing terms.Through counseling, the boy came to understand that colors are not gendered and later identified as male again. Dr. Brady testified that this progress was only possible because the parents were informed and sought help.
The DOE noted a Daily Caller report from last year that claimed at least 300 students across six California school districts were placed on “gender support plans” or had their names or pronouns updated in school systems — and that it wasn’t clear whether parents were in fact made aware of the decision.
The federal agency did not say whether it substantiated that report.
After Chino Valley Unified School District passed a rule in July 2023 that required schools to tell parents if their child changed their gender identity at school, state officials stepped in to stop it, arguing that students have a right to privacy from their families under California law.
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The feds have given the California DOE two weeks to respond and come into compliance with federal law requiring them to now notify parents about whether their child has opted to change gender identity. If it does not, the federal government could take necessary “enforcement action.”
“The environment they are creating in the state makes it basically impossible for districts to comply with FERPA,” a senior DOE official said, referring to a federal privacy law that gives parents access to their children’s education records and control over the disclosure of personal information.
Parents of hundreds of students were apparently left in the dark thanks to the state’s move. Getty ImagesUnder a California law passed in July 2024, school districts have been prohibited from requiring staff to disclose a student’s gender identity or sexual orientation to parents without the student’s permission. This law, known as the Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth Act, prevented schools from enforcing “forced outing” policies.
“Schools do not get to choose which records they feel like providing to parents and which ones they don’t,” the official said.
Specifically, school officials petitioned the student management company, Aeries, to hide student names and pronouns and to override the parent portal, limiting what parents can see, according to a senior DOE official.
The DOE said California can avoid further federal action if it fixes the violations by clearly telling schools that parents have the right to see all student records, including “gender support plans.”
The state must also stop telling districts that California law overrides federal law, require schools to certify they are following FERPA, and add federal privacy training for teachers and staff. If California does not comply, the department warned it could face enforcement action, including the loss of federal funding.
The Governor’s office directed The Post to the California DOE.
The state apparently pressured schools to create secret “gender support plans” and override parent portals. MediaNews Group via Getty Images“We do believe that we have already addressed the essence of this letter in previous communications,” a spokesperson for the CDE told The Post, sharing six responses they sent to the DOE last year.
The spokesperson said their office is reviewing the letter.
“To the extent that it addresses pending litigation, we cannot comment,” she said.
The DOE launched its investigation into the California Department of Education in March 2025 citing repeated refusals by CDE to clarify that parents have the right to inspect “gender support plans.”
This is the second federal probe this year into California’s transgender policies and its department of education.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration expanded its investigation into transgender athletes, adding the California Community College Athletic Association — which oversees 108 programs statewide — to claims the state is violating federal law by allowing trans athletes to compete in women’s sports.
