Overview
- The Student Privacy Policy Office concluded California policies created state-directed pressure that led districts to withhold transition-related information from parents in violation of FERPA, citing AB 1955.
- Investigators described secret “gender support plans” maintained outside parents’ accessible records and documented requests to the Aeries system to hide names and pronouns from parent portals.
- Coverage cited data indicating roughly 300 California students in 2023–24 had support plans or name/pronoun changes in school systems, in many cases without parental knowledge.
- Federal officials offered voluntary remedies that include notifying districts these plans are education records subject to parental inspection, clarifying that state law cannot override FERPA, updating training, and obtaining compliance assurances.
- California officials and several student privacy experts dispute the department’s interpretation, as parallel court fights continue, including a district court ruling later stayed by the Ninth Circuit and potential Supreme Court involvement.