California schools have no right to hide a child’s records from parents
California’s federal findings say schools kept gender-support plans outside records parents could inspect; parents should request every file. (California’s federal findings say schools kept gender-support plans outside records parents could inspect; parents should request every file.)
California parents have a right to inspect their children’s education records, and Linda McMahon is right to enforce it.and Linda McMahon is right: “Take on the mantle, go to the school and find out what your children are being taught and how you want them to be taught.” On October 25, 2026, Education Secretary Linda McMahon told the California Post/New York Post: “For a state to keep that information from parents, to hide files and to not provide that information, it's clearly against FERPA, and we will investigate and come after them hard.”
The Education Department’s account on X put the same warning in plain words: “Washington is getting out of the classroom, parents need to step in, and schools that keep secrets from families will pay the price.”1
“Take on the mantle, go to the school and find out what your children are being taught”
California kept support plans outside parent records
The Education Department’s January 28, 2026 finding says California is in continued violation of federal student-records law. The Student Privacy Policy Office found that California’s policies “create powerful state-directed pressure for LEAs to adopt practices that are likely to lead to—and have led to—FERPA noncompliance.”3 The finding describes the mechanism as secret “gender support plans” kept in separate filing systems for the primary purpose of hiding these records from parents2.
The department identified AB 1955, a 2024 law, among the policies that did the pressuring, and that law bars districts from requiring disclosure of a student’s gender identity to parents without the student’s consent4. In Mt. Diablo Unified School District, the gender-support plan lets the student choose where the document is stored, and the federal findings say the plan indicated that only the cumulative file was accessible to parents3. A file in a locked cabinet is a file the parent is not allowed to read.
Parents need access to guide their children
How can a parent guide a child when the school has written a plan about that child that the parent cannot inspect?
The Post reports that academic results give parents equally urgent reasons to watch the classroom: about six in 10 California students are not proficient in math, while roughly half fail to meet state reading proficiency standards4. Schools should welcome that scrutiny, both of their academic work and of their decisions about children.
A records request should reach every file
California Attorney General Rob Bonta has sued over the finding, and the state says the law doesn’t mandate nondisclosure4. The department’s proposed resolution says gender-support plans and related student records “are considered education records under FERPA and are subject to parental inspection upon request.”
The department’s proposed resolution says there is “no ‘unofficial records’ exception to FERPA.”2 Calling a file unofficial does not make it private from the parent it describes.
California parents should request every record
California parents should submit a FERPA request for every education record their child’s school maintains, and name gender-support plans in the request. Ask the school to produce records held outside the cumulative file as well.
The proposal would also require districts to certify FERPA compliance. McMahon has promised the enforcement that should follow: “We will use every available mechanism to hold California accountable for these practices and restore parental rights.”2
Parents should not have to surrender oversight when they send a child to school. Request every record, including every gender-support plan, and make the school answer in writing.
Sources
- @usedgov on X, 2026-10-25: Washington is getting out of the classroom, parents need to step in, and schools that keep secrets from families will pay the price. https://x.com/usedgov/status/2114391588025823644/photo/1, 2026-10-25
- U.S. Department of Education Finds California Department of Education Violated Federal Law by Hiding Students’ “Gender Transitions” from Parents | U.S. Department of Education
- Case 3:26-cv-01259-WHO Document 1-1 Filed 02/11/26 Page 39 of 60
- Exclusive | Education Secretary Linda McMahon takes on California schools and Gavin Newsom
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