Feds Open Enforcement Action Against Los Angeles Schools Over Parent Secrecy

The Education Department and the Justice Department announced a new enforcement action Monday against the Los Angeles Unified School District, according to a DOJ press release. The agencies say district policies require staff to keep sensitive information hidden from parents. That is the agencies' position, not a court finding.

The DOJ says the LAUSD policies direct district employees to privately ask a student how the student wants to be referred to when staff talk with parents or legal guardians. The policies also tell staff to keep a student's self-described gender identity private or confidential, including from parents, according to the release. The agencies say those policies violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment and have let students make life-altering decisions without their parents knowing.

The same day, the two departments sent a joint letter to all state attorneys general on parental rights under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment. The letter puts the attorneys general on notice that under those two laws, parents have the right to know the most sensitive and personal information about their children, the DOJ says. The Education Department urged all state attorneys general to work with it in upholding the law.

Harmeet Dhillon, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, said the Biden-era DOJ labeled concerned parents as threats for wanting to know what happened at their kids' schools. She said her division stands with parents and will keep working with the Education Department to enforce parents' rights under federal law, according to the release.

The DOJ explains the two laws in the release. FERPA protects the privacy of student education records and gives parents the right to see those records, ask for changes and control the disclosure of personal information. PPRA requires schools to notify parents and get written consent before surveys ask students about sensitive matters such as sex behaviors, religious beliefs or mental and psychological problems. The Education Department says it partnered with the DOJ in June 2026 to speed up enforcement of parental and civil rights laws. The letter and enforcement action came on the same day the DOJ's Weaponization Working Group released its report on the Garland school-board memo, the release says.