EXCLUSIVE: Trump DOE investigates WA Superintendent for threatening schools that don’t comply with students’ secret gender identity rule

In a letter obtained by the Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI, the Department of Education said that the policies implemented by OSPI violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA), and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The letter follows a year-long fight between the school district and the state.

Earlier this year, OSPI ordered La Center to change its policies to conform with state law to protect “gender-expansive students,” which is contrary to federal law, and threatened to withhold funds from the school district after it refused to hide students’ gender identities from parents. Washington’s Democratic Superintendent of Public Instruction, Chris Reykdal, claimed the La Center School District’s decision to inform parents of how a student identifies in school discriminates against students and families regarding gender inclusivity and rights of queer and transgender students.

La Center Schools Superintendent Peter Rosenkranz said in an interview that he believes the state’s policies leave parents out of the equation by requiring school staff to ask students their preferred pronouns rather than their parents.

In a statement to the Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI, the Department of Education said it “is committed to protecting parents' rights,” noting that it “recently launched FERPA investigations into Maine and California and sent a Dear Colleague Letter directing schools to comply with parental rights laws.”

Last week, Reykdal pushed back against the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights' request for states to certify their compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as well as the landmark Supreme Court ruling striking down affirmative action.

He also called the request "the latest attack against the rights of states to have civil rights frameworks that exceed the federal minimum standards," and claimed the move was "an attempt to erase diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices that, for decades, have helped bring greater opportunities to more students."

In March, Reykdal claimed, “It is quite simply inaccurate to say biologically that there are only boys and only girls," in response to President Donald Trump’s Executive Order that there are only two genders. He also said during the same interview, "DEI is not a harmful thing, it's a good thing," in response to another executive order banning the discriminatory curriculum.

Reykdal has championed the divisive ideology while presiding over a disastrous decline in Washington academics where 71 percent of the State’s eighth graders aren’t proficient in math and 69 percent aren’t proficient in reading despite record spending. He previously said, "Washington will not suppress its core values or cede our right to determine our own education system to the federal government."

Earlier this month, Reykdal was one of several Democratic officials in Washington who threatened legal action against the governing body for high school sports in the Evergreen state if the agency banned men from women’s sports. The day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to keep men out of women's sports, Reykdal issued a statement claiming that it "directly contradicts state law" and "requires educational institutions to agree to discriminate against trans female athletes in order to continue receiving federal funds."

Katy Payne, spokesperson for OSPI, told The Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI in a statement, "We are aware that the US Department of Education is attempting to intervene in an ongoing civil rights review between OSPI and La Center School District––a potential overreach of the federal government’s authority. We will continue to steadfastly follow the laws of the state of Washington, which provide clear civil rights protections for our transgender and gender-expansive youth that fit squarely inside the protections provided under federal law."