Trump’s education secretary claims schools are secretly transitioning children. They aren’t

Education Secretary Linda McMahon claimed that federal investigations in three states found public school officials helping children socially transition at school while keeping that information from their parents.

McMahon made the sweeping claim in an interview with Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” where host Maria Bartiromo asked about “evidence that there are certain schools in certain counties that are encouraging transitions for kids and hiding it from the parents.”

“This is a travesty that parents are not considered first and foremost in charge of their children. They don't belong to the government,” McMahon said.

Within hours, the Education Department announced a “crackdown” on “School Districts Secretly ‘Transitioning’ Students and Hiding it from Parents.” The agency said it had taken “significant action” against Anne Arundel County Public Schools in Maryland and Ann Arbor Public Schools in Michigan, and that the Justice Department would pursue enforcement action against the districts.

The announcement followed Education Department findings that the districts had treated information about a student’s gender identity as part of the student’s private medical or educational record — information that, in some circumstances, could be kept confidential from a parent or legal guardian.

“As a mother and a grandmother, it is unconscionable that any school district would hide the most sensitive information about children in their care from their own parents. This is not only an affront to basic moral principles, but also to parents’ rights under federal law,” McMahon said in a statement.

One Maryland example involved parents who did learn that their child was using a different gender identity at school. Forms sent home referred to the child with he/him pronouns, but the school’s principal declined to provide the parents with further information about the change.

“Today, ED and DOJ are putting districts on notice that we will use every tool available to hold them to account for this egregious behavior. Under the Trump Administration, ED and DOJ are working together to vigorously uphold parents’ federal protections, and we will work to ensure that no parent is ever kept in the dark about important matters relating to their children.”

In her Fox News interview, McMahon also said the Education Department was exploring whether to withhold federal funding from the Burlington School District in Vermont over separate allegations involving a student survey. She said the district surveyed seventh-grade students about sex and drug and alcohol use without parental consent.

“This is really outrageous. And to hide it from parents and actually create separate file folders so that when parents ask to see their children's records, that is being kept from them, and it's being done on purpose. So we're just not going to stand for it,” McMahon told Fox News.

The Justice Department warned that districts withholding information from parents could face legal consequences.

“School districts that hide information from parents are violating federal law,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon. “FERPA (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) is not optional, and any districts that attempt to bypass or distort its requirements should expect immediate federal action. In partnership with the Department of Education, the Department of Justice will initiate enforcement proceedings with districts that fail to comply.”

Despite McMahon’s characterization and the department’s inflammatory headline, the joint announcement from the Justice and Education departments offered no evidence that schools were encouraging children to transition. Instead, it cited policies or individual cases in which educators declined to disclose a student’s gender identity without the student’s consent.

McMahon has previously threatened to withhold federal funding from Kansas school districts over similar allegations. America First Legal, an organization founded by White House adviser Stephen Miller, has funded lawsuits challenging policies intended to protect LGBTQ+ students from being involuntarily outed throughout Maryland.