White House targets LAUSD over twisted policies hiding kids’ secrets from families — as ‘domestic terrorists’ row erupts again

Los Angeles schools face federal enforcement — and the possible loss of federal funding — over policies the Trump administration says improperly hide sensitive student information from parents.

The action also revives the explosive controversy over the Biden administration’s response to angry parents at school-board meetings, after the National School Boards Association characterized some conduct as potentially amounting to “a form of domestic terrorism.”

The Department of Education and Department of Justice announce Monday it is launching an “enforcement action” against the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest, over policies that allegedly require school employees to conceal sensitive information, such as a student’s gender identity, from parents.

“Under the Biden Administration, parents were the enemy. They were labeled as terrorists, targeted, and investigated by a government weaponized against them,” US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said. “That era is over.

“Parents are children’s natural providers and protectors,” Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet K. Dhillon said.

“The Biden-Harris DOJ labeled concerned parents as threats for exercising their right to know what was happening at their kids’ schools,” Dhillon added.

The Education Department and DOJ specifically cited LAUSD policies directing employees to “privately ask the student how they want to be referred to when communicating with parents/legal guardians” and requiring a student’s self-professed “gender identity” to be kept “private” or “confidential,” including from parents.

“Many superintendents and school officials continue to behave as though they will not be held accountable for maintaining policies that infringe parents’ rights. The conditions of federal funding under FERPA and PPRA are nonnegotiable,” the letter reads.

Sonja Shaw, a Republican candidate for California superintendent of public instruction and president of the Chino Valley Unified School District board, said the federal action validated the fight she has waged over parental rights.

“Today, the Trump administration’s Department of Education and Department of Justice are saying what parents have known all along: Parents are not terrorists,” Shaw told The California Post. “We have the right to know the most sensitive information about our own kids.”

Federal officials contend that the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, or PPRA, protect parents’ rights to access their children’s education records and, in specified circumstances, require schools to obtain parental consent before collecting certain sensitive information.

FERPA protects the privacy of students’ education records while giving parents the right to access their children’s records and, in certain circumstances, control who else can see them.

PPRA gives parents additional protections when schools question children about sensitive subjects including mental health, sexual behavior and attitudes, religion and political beliefs.

In their letter to state attorneys general, Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Dhillon warned that schools conducting covered mental-health screenings or similar evaluations must obtain prior written parental consent rather than simply giving parents the opportunity to opt out.

“Opt-outs are not sufficient in this regard,” they wrote.

The administration warned that violations of FERPA or PPRA can result in the termination of an educational institution’s federal funding, potentially raising the stakes for LAUSD.

In 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland directed the FBI and US attorneys to address reported threats against school officials following a request from the National School Boards Association.

The move sparked an uproar among parents’ rights groups after an NSBA letter to President Biden suggested that some threats and acts of violence against school officials could amount to “a form of domestic terrorism.”

Emails later made public showed NSBA officials had communicated with White House staff before sending the letter.

The FBI scrutiny became a flashpoint for conservative parents, who argued the federal government was treating ordinary school-board activism as a national-security issue.

Garland subsequently insisted parents had the First Amendment right to vigorously challenge school policies and said the DOJ memorandum was not aimed at parents simply complaining about their children’s education.

“I can’t imagine any circumstance in which the Patriot Act would be used in the circumstances of parents complaining about their children,” Garland said at the time. “Nor can I imagine a circumstance where they would be labeled as domestic terrorism.”

The Trump administration is now seeking to draw a line under that era, arguing that parents — rather than government officials or schools — have the primary right to direct their children’s education and receive information about them.

Shaw said she was among the parents who became involved in the fight.

“Almost seven years ago I was just a mom who wanted a seat at the table in my own child’s education and was sidelined,” Shaw said. “I showed up to school board meetings because I believed parents not bureaucrats should know what is happening with our children.”

She said the experience ultimately pushed her into local school-board politics, where she has served as president of the Chino Valley school board.

“This Administration has taken more enforcement action on parental rights laws than any other administration in US history,” McMahon and Dhillon wrote.

Shaw, who is running for state superintendent, said California should look to the federal action against LAUSD as a warning.

“LAUSD is the warning of what happens when parents are pushed out, secrecy becomes policy, and accountability disappears,” Shaw said.

The Post has reached out to LAUSD for comment.

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