Trump admin cracking down on Maryland, Michigan school districts for secretly transitioning children 

The Trump administration is taking action against two public school systems it says helped children adopt new gender identities at school while keeping their parents in the dark.

The U.S. Department of Education announced Monday that it will work with the U.S. Department of Justice to enforce federal law against Anne Arundel County Public Schools in Maryland. It also warned Ann Arbor Public Schools in Michigan that similar action could follow.

Anne Arundel County Public Schools serves more than 85,000 students in Annapolis and surrounding communities. Ann Arbor Public Schools serves nearly 17,000 students.

The cases involve so-called social gender transitions. This can mean using a new name or pronouns or treating a boy as a girl or a girl as a boy at school.

In Maryland, the Education Department said it received complaints from parents who learned their daughter was being treated as a boy at school only after an email addressed to her used male pronouns. The agency said the principal declined to explain what the school had done and an assistant principal refused to provide the parents with related records.

The department said Anne Arundel schools violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) by treating a student’s claimed gender identity as confidential medical information that staff could withhold from parents.

FERPA gives parents the right to inspect their child’s education records, seek corrections and control many disclosures of personal information.

Anne Arundel school’s policy says staff should work with a student and the student’s parents on a support plan unless school officials identify a legitimate safety concern. But the policy also says staff cannot share information that could reveal a student’s self-selected gender identity unless required by law. Staff also must use a student’s preferred name and pronouns without a court order or a change to official records.

That leaves school officials, not parents, deciding whether a family will learn about a major change in a child’s identity.

A separate July 8 lawsuit filed by two Christian parents makes similar claims against Anne Arundel schools. The parents say staff used a male name and pronouns for their daughter behind their backs, continued doing so after they objected and interfered with their ability to guide her religious upbringing.

The school system told Reuters it first learned of the federal findings through the Education Department’s public announcement and had not received the supporting documents. It said it would review the material and respond after receiving it.

In Michigan, the Education Department found Ann Arbor’s policy likely violates FERPA. The agency gave the district until Aug. 10 to show why the government should not begin enforcement.

The district’s policy lets students decide when and with whom they will share a transgender identity. It tells staff to use a child’s legal name and sex-based pronouns when speaking with parents unless the student or family has directed otherwise. It also places records with a child’s birth name and sex in a separate confidential file.

Heartlander News published a report on the Ann Arbor policy in 2023. The Trump administration now says the policy likely violates FERPA, the federal privacy law Ann Arbor’s policy itself cites.

“It is unconscionable that any school district would hide the most sensitive information” from parents, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon was more direct.

“FERPA is not optional,” she said.

The move is part of a broader federal push against similar policies in multiple states.

Heartlander News reported in May that Olathe Public Schools in Kansas agreed to make gender-related records available to parents after a federal investigation. Shawnee Mission School District, also in Kansas, rejected the government’s proposed agreement and risks losing federal funds.