As students head back to school, the U.S. Department of Education is making clear that parental rights are no longer optional. In a series of actions surrounding National Parents' Day on July 26, the department has launched investigations, issued findings, and partnered with the Department of Justice to enforce federal laws that have long been ignored.
The crackdown targets school districts that facilitate students adopting new gender identities at school—using different names and pronouns—while actively hiding this information from parents. The department argues such practices violate the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) of 1978 and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974.
New investigations and findings
Among the recent actions, the department opened parental rights investigations into Denver Public Schools in Colorado and Bethel School District in Washington for potential PPRA violations. It also found that Burlington Public Schools in Massachusetts violated PPRA by administering a sexually explicit “Youth Risk Behavior Survey” despite parents opting their children out.
In a first, the department launched statewide FERPA investigations into California and Washington over policies that pressure schools to conceal student records from parents. These policies are so egregious they triggered the first-ever such probes.
Enforcement with teeth
The department has not stopped at investigations. In partnership with the DOJ, it took enforcement action against Anne Arundel County, Maryland, schools for improperly classifying a student's transgender identity as “confidential medical information” to hide it from parents. In Ann Arbor, Michigan, the department determined that a district policy directing employees to conceal such information likely violates FERPA and threatened enforcement. In Kansas City, Kansas, a district's repeated refusal to comply led the department and DOJ to announce judicial proceedings and potential loss of federal funding.
“The message is clear: FERPA is not an optional statute. It is the law,” said a department spokesperson. “Districts that lie to parents and hide sensitive information about their child are on notice.”
State-level confrontations
Earlier this year, the department issued a finding against the California Department of Education, which had asked its student data management company to conceal name and pronoun changes from parents in so-called “gender support plans.” The department also demanded that California and Washington explain their policies, which it says undermine parental rights.
Interagency agreement and judicial support
At the start of summer, the Education and Justice Departments formalized an interagency agreement to “expedite enforcement of our nation's parental and civil rights laws.” This move signals a new priority for federal enforcement.
The courts have reinforced this momentum. In Mirabelli v. Bonta, the Supreme Court reaffirmed that parents have “primary authority” over their children's education and upbringing. In June 2026, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that California laws forbidding schools from notifying parents about a child's social transition likely violate constitutional rights.
Expanding educational freedom
Beyond enforcement, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act established a federal education tax credit scholarship program for the first time. It offers a dollar-for-dollar tax credit of up to $1,700 for donations to Scholarship Granting Organizations that provide K-12 scholarships to low- and middle-income families. Thirty-one states have announced plans to opt in starting January 1, 2027, making scholarships available to an estimated 90% of K-12 students nationwide.
“This is what it looks like when the federal government stands with parents instead of against them,” said Kate Anderson, senior counsel and director of the Center for Parental Rights at Alliance Defending Freedom. “Preserving parental rights through enforcement, protecting through policies that empower.”
The message to school districts is simple: hide information from parents, and your federal funding is at risk. The message to parents is equally clear: keep fighting—you're winning.
