The Trump administration has opened a federal investigation into Los Angeles public schools and, within days, pulled federal backing from policies tied to transgender student protections, putting those policies under direct federal challenge.
The Justice Department is now examining the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest school system in the country, over a policy that allows school officials to withhold a student’s gender identity from parents. The probe follows a lawsuit from parents who say they were never told their child was transitioning at school and were cut out of decisions involving the student’s care and mental health.
District guidance adopted in 2019 tells staff to consider a student’s safety and well-being before deciding whether to notify parents. It allows students to use preferred pronouns, access facilities based on gender identity, and receive school-based support without automatic parental disclosure. The Justice Department notified the district of the investigation in a March 25 letter tied to those policies.
Federal officials pointed directly to the parental rights concerns raised in the lawsuit.
“Parents have a fundamental right to the care, custody and control of their children, including the right to direct their children’s upbringing and education,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in a statement.
According to the complaint, the student at the center of the case, identified as Dylan, disclosed plans to transition at school, but staff did not notify the parents and instead helped carry out a support plan inside the school. That included allowing different pronouns and connecting the student with school-based resources while keeping the parents unaware.
“The secrecy policy isolated Dylan rather than helping him. It did not expand educational access or reduce stigma; instead, it cut him off from those best equipped to address his distress and mental health risks, depriving him of the stability parental involvement provides,” the complaint states.
The administration also moved to undo prior federal enforcement tied to transgender student protections, terminating civil rights agreements with several school districts and a college that had been required to follow those standards. Those agreements were negotiated under earlier administrations and tied to interpretations of Title IX that treated gender identity as a protected category.
Read More: The ‘Trans’ Movement Is Almost Over Now
The department said it will no longer enforce those settlements, affecting districts in Delaware, Washington state, Pennsylvania, and California, as well as Taft College. It is the first time the federal government has canceled civil rights agreements of this kind that were previously negotiated.
Officials said the decision aligns with broader efforts to challenge policies that allow (male) transgender students to participate in girls’ sports teams or access shared locker rooms and facilities based on gender identity.
“Today, the Trump Administration is removing the unnecessary and unlawful burdens that prior Administrations imposed on schools in its relentless pursuit of a radical transgender agenda,” Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said in a written statement.
The administration has also filed lawsuits in California and Minnesota over similar policies and opened additional civil rights investigations into schools and universities, extending that scrutiny across multiple states.
With federal civil rights agreements rescinded and new investigations underway, school districts across the country are now navigating these policies without federal cover, and the legal fights are already underway.
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