Ann Arbor’s 90-day DOJ deal is a win for parents
The 90-day standstill gives Ann Arbor’s board time to revise a policy federal authorities say kept parents from learning their children’s transgender status.
Ann Arbor parents have a right to know what happens to their children at school, and the Justice Department’s 90-day agreement is a win for that right. On October 14, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon announced that DOJ’s Civil Rights Division had agreed to a 90-day litigation pause with Ann Arbor Public Schools “to secure voluntary compliance” and said the district would amend its policies to ensure parents have full rights under FERPA and PPRA. Dhillon wrote, “Parental rights are not optional.”1
Her post says the district "will amend its policies to ensure parents have full rights under FERPA and PPRA1." The school board authorized the standstill at its regular meeting on Oct. 7, MLive reports2. WEMU reports that the moratorium stops any DOJ action to punish the district, which the department accuses of violating parental rights3.
“It doesn't mean we're changing anything. We're trying to be more clever than that.”
The policy lets students control disclosure
The charge against Ann Arbor is specific. WEMU reports that the Trump administration says the district required staff to hide a child's transgender status from parents or guardians, and that the district denies the charge3.
The district's own policy, first adopted in 2017, lets transgender and gender-nonconforming students decide when, with whom, and what private information to share, MLive reports. It also tells staff to use a student's legal name and the pronoun matching the sex assigned at birth when contacting a parent, "unless the student, parent or guardian has specified otherwise2." When the student is first on the list of people who can change what the school tells a parent, what is left of the parent's authority?
Dhillon quoted a trustee on avoiding change
Dhillon told the district a month earlier what a fix without substance would look like. On Sept. 14 she posted that Ann Arbor Public Schools "prevented parents from accessing their child's records, violating parents’ rights under FERPA & PPRA4." The trustee said: "It doesn't mean we're changing anything. We're trying to be more clever than that."."
MLive reports that the board quickly approved an amendment officials said clarified existing district practices, ahead of an original Aug. 31 deadline. In September, federal authorities said the district failed to substantively change its policy to come into compliance2. Another rewrite that changes nothing would send the district back to where it started.
Assurances do not settle the policy
The district's best answer is that parents already have access. MLive reports that its policy "confirms unfettered access" for parents and eligible students to review school records under FERPA. Board President Torchio Feaster said, "Any policy revisions will reflect our commitment to serving all students safely, fairly and in accordance with their legally protected rights2."
The same policy says staff are not authorized to disclose a student's personally identifiable or medical information2. Parents' rights under FERPA and PPRA are legally protected too, and "commitment" is not language a parent can point to.
The board must put parents’ rights in writing
MLive reports that Superintendent Jazz Parks and legal counsel may keep talking with the Justice Department, but that officials "emphasized that any additional policy changes, consent decrees or settlement terms would still require school board approval2." Every one of those decisions comes back to the board, in public.
Ann Arbor parents should be in that room and ask three questions that need a yes or no. Will the amended policy say in writing that staff tell a parent when a child's school identity differs from what the parent knows? Will it remove the student's power to override what a parent is told? Will the board vote on the text in open session before the pause ends? If the answer is another "clever"1 revision, Dhillon's Civil Rights Division should end the pause and go to court.
Sources
- @AAGDhillon on X, 2026-10-14: 🚨 UPDATE 🚨 DOJ @CivilRights Division agreed to a 90-day litigation pause with Ann Arbor Public Schools to secure voluntary compliance. The district will amend its policies to ensure parents have full rights under FERPA and PPRA. Parental rights are not optio, 2026-10-14
- Ann Arbor schools agree to 90-day pause in transgender policy dispute with DOJ - mlive.com
- AAPS and DOJ agree to 90-day pause over transgender policy | WEMU-FM
- @AAGDhillon on X, 2026-09-14: Ann Arbor Public Schools prevented parents from accessing their child's records, violating parents’ rights under FERPA & PPRA. When revising the policy, a trustee admitted, "It doesn't mean we're changing anything. We're trying to be more clever than that." Cl, 2026-09-14
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