Over 6,000 schools have policies to hide students’ transgender status from parents, sparking action in Congress

Thousands of schools in the U.S. have policies to keep parents in the dark about their kids’ gender identities, leading one congressman to introduce a ban on the deception. 

A new report from Parents Defending Education reveals at least 6,387 schools in 174 districts have the controversial policies in place. The list of schools represent more than 3.2 million students.

Many states are taking targeting the secrecy with legislation, motivated by parents who are outraged that their rights are being usurped by public school administrators.

In Indiana, for example, a proposed law would require parents to be informed by schools if students begin to question their gender identity.

“Senate Bill 354 simply requires school districts to notify a parent if their child has expressed conflicted feelings with gender identity or expression,” said Sen. Jeff Raatz, a Republican sponsoring the bill, “as well as if the student asks to change their name, attire or title to one inconsistent with their biological sex at birth.”

States as different as Virginia and California have proposed similar laws, but have seen them shot down by hostile legislators.

Now U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa of California has proposed a national law that would ban these “Parental Secrecy” policies under H.R. 1585. 

The bill was inspired by a lawsuit, Regino v. Staley, where a fifth grade girl was determined to be a “boy” within minutes of seeing a guidance counselor at her Chico, California, school, which then allegedly “manipulated her into keeping her mom in the dark,” said the Center for American Liberty (CAL).

Under California’s Department of Education policies, the school is prohibited from notifying the parents while they assign new names and pronouns to students of any age, unless the student specifically directs the school to notify the parents.

“Parents have a God-given right and duty to protect their children from this state-sponsored malpractice,” said Congressman LaMalfa in a statement.

“The fact that Chico Unified would support a guidance counselor making this decision in a matter of minutes is appalling,” he continued. “The fact that they are arguing in Court that they had a right to actively exclude a parent from this conversation while simultaneously publicly declaring this life changing decision to all the other students and teachers is incomprehensible.

“My bill will put a stop to this child endangerment and school bureaucrats going behind parent’s backs to transition children.”

Currently the bill has been referred to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, which is chaired by Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, a Republican. 

The GOP currently holds a 25-20 majority on the committee.