After receiving a threat from the federal government about violating parental rights, Anne Arundel County public schools informed the school community Wednesday that its gender policy for students has been amended to grant parents more access.
Superintendent Mark T. Bedell wrote in a letter to the school community that the confidentiality section of the school district’s “Safe and Inclusive Environments for LGBTQ+ Students” was revised. In addition, the district is in compliance with the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
Bedell wrote the policy clarifies that parents will have the right to inspect and review all parts of their child’s education record.
The amended policy comes after America First Legal of Washington, D.C., filed a lawsuit July 8 in U.S. District Court of Maryland against the county schools on behalf of two parents, labeled John and Jane Doe with a daughter in high school, who alleged that the district secretly facilitated their minor child’s social “gender transition” at school without their notice or consent.
According to the complaint, the school district began in 2019 to adopt policies that include a guidance document for staff “to conceal gender identity information from parents of high school students.”
The complaint states the parents “want to educate [their daughter] according to their religious beliefs that God creates each person as male or female, that sex is based on biology rather than internal self-perception, and that sex cannot be altered. Moreover, the Does want to control how decisions are made for [their daughter] concerning these fundamentally important issues. Multiple AACPS personnel have referred to [their daughter] using a male name at school and in school documents without informing the Does or securing their consent.”
Less than three weeks later on July 27, the U.S. Department of Education’s Student Privacy Policy Office and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division announced they were taking enforcement action against Anne Arundel County after the district classified a student’s gender identity as “confidential medical information” that couldn’t be shared with parents.
“School districts that hide information from parents are violating federal law,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in a statement at the time. “FERPA is not optional, and any districts that attempt to bypass or distort its requirements should expect immediate federal action.
According to various news reports, local school officials didn’t receive any formal notice or correspondence and “carefully review it and respond through the appropriate process.”
On Wednesday, the Anne Arundel superintendent wrote that the safe and inclusive policy was amended to now read:
“The Federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) protects the privacy of parents/guardians and students by generally prohibiting schools that receive federal education funding from disclosing personally identifiable information from a student’s education records without the parent’s/guardian’s consent, except in limited circumstances.”
It continues: “Nothing in this regulation shall be construed to limit or otherwise interfere with parents’/guardians’ rights under FERPA, including the right to inspect and review their student’s complete education record. Under FERPA, education records generally include all records, files, documents, and other materials maintained by AACPS that contain information directly related to a student. Board of Education of Anne Arundel County Policy JH and Administrative Regulation JH-RA – Student Records – govern student records at AACPS.”
“As made clear by these amendments, no policy, guideline, or practice may limit or otherwise interfere with parental rights under FERPA, and this includes any information maintained in education records that relates to gender identity, transgender status, sexual orientation, preferred name, or preferred pronouns,” Bedell wrote.
The first day of school in Anne Arundel County is Monday.
