Parent org tracks thousands of schools that advise teachers on how to hide gender transitions from parents

(Daily Caller News Foundation) – Parents Defending Education (PDE), a parental rights organization, has identified thousands of school districts which have policies that advise employees on how to keep a student’s transgender status hidden from parents, according to the organization.

As of Tuesday, PDE’s tracker on its website shows that 1,000 schools districts, which includes 17,612 schools and more than 10 million students, have “Transgender/Gender Nonconforming Policies” in place which advise educators on how to keep a student’s transgender status hidden from parents, according to the organization. The transgender policies are found in school districts across 38 states, with California and New Jersey schools accounting for the most in the nation. 

“We can barely keep up with our tracker because the numbers are so overwhelming, as parents constantly send us their schools’ policies to add to the list,” Erika Sanzi, director of outreach for PDE, told the Daily Caller News Foundation “We knew the numbers would rise, and we expect them to continue rising, because the policies are mostly driven by state and federal ‘guidance.’ These policies that deliberately deceive parents are pervasive and we must eradicate them.”

Listed on PDE’s tracker are some of the largest school districts in the country, including Los Angeles Unified School District and Chicago Public Schools. Chicago Public Schools’ “guidelines regarding the support of transgender and gender nonconforming students” directs staff to not share a student’s transgender status with others, and notes that children can go on overnight trips in accordance with their gender identity “consistently asserted at school.”

Seattle Public Schools, the largest school system in Washington state, has guidance in place which advises educators to use a student’s biological name and pronouns when speaking to parents if it is not clear whether or not the parents are aware of their child’s gender transition. The policy also notes that students have the right to use the bathroom on the basis of gender identity rather than biological sex.

Parents throughout the country are pushing back against school districts that are hiding their child’s gender transitions. In Maine, a mother filed a lawsuit against a school district that allegedly kept her daughter’s gender transition a secret and provided the 13-year-old girl with multiple chest binders. Two Colorado families sued a school district because educators allegedly convinced their daughters to join a “secret” club aiming to transition students and conceal the club’s activities from parents.

Chicago Public Schools and Seattle Public Schools did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.