Kansas school district allows secret gender transitions for students, without parents’ consent: DOJ suit

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, joined by the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas, alleges that KCKPS violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) through internal guidelines governing transgender and gender non-conforming students.

According to the complaint, the district maintains policies directing staff to help students socially transition at school while allowing information about the process to be withheld from parents. The government argues that the policy prevents parents from accessing education records and allows sensitive information to be collected from children without the written parental consent required under federal law.

“Parental rights are paramount in the operation of America’s public schools, and Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools does not know children better than their own parents,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in announcing the lawsuit. “The Department will not tolerate school districts playing fast and loose with federal law in the service of radical gender ideology.”

The lawsuit, filed in US District Court for the District of Kansas, targets the district’s internal Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Students Internal Guidance Document, which has existed in various forms since at least 2017. The complaint states that although the school board never formally voted to adopt the original guidance, the district nevertheless implemented a “substantially similar” internal policy, with the current version in use since 2024.

Under that guidance, if a student does not want a parent or legal guardian involved, district officials may consider excluding the parent on a case-by-case basis. The decision can involve the district’s Executive Director of Student Services & Family Support, Director of Student Support Programs, Executive Director of Equity & Inclusion, and an attorney. Officials are instructed to consider factors including the student’s age, grade level and welfare.

The resulting school planning meeting can address the student’s preferred name, gender and pronouns, as well as school records, restroom and locker room use, physical education, field trips, sports and staff training.

The complaint alleges that a student may also ask that his or her transgender status not be disclosed to parents. If officials approve excluding the parents, the district can create a written “Gender Plan” without them. The policy then calls for an implementation meeting involving district employees but not the parent.

Federal officials also allege that the guidelines were kept from much of the school community.

According to the complaint, Assistant Superintendent of Organizational Development Canise Salinas referred in an undated recording to a “transgender guideline” that was not made available to the KCKPS community and was instead safeguarded by certain “gatekeepers.”

Another district official, Organizational Development Specialist Lauren Hernandez, allegedly discussed how to support students whose cultures opposed “LGBTQIA relationships,” including questioning a student about whether he was willing to share information with his father, who was a preacher.

“For decades, schools operated with little accountability as federal parental rights laws like FERPA and PPRA went unenforced, allowing some districts to cut parents out of deeply personal matters involving their own children,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said. “That era is over. The Trump Administration is enforcing these laws at an unprecedented scale and making clear that schools cannot hide sensitive information from parents and expect to operate with impunity.”

The Department of Education opened a FERPA investigation into the district in August 2025. According to the complaint, KCKPS subsequently argued that its gender policy was irrelevant because the board had “never adopted, approved, or utilized” it as a formal policy.

Education officials determined on July 1, 2026, that the district was out of substantial compliance with FERPA and reached a similar determination regarding PPRA on August 25. The federal government said it ultimately determined that KCKPS would not voluntarily comply with the statutes.

“This lawsuit should not come as a surprise,” US Attorney Ryan A. Kriegshauser said. “Public education functions effectively only when schools and parents engage in a genuine partnership. When schools withhold information from parents, they undermine trust and disrupt the essential balance between families and public educators.”

The lawsuit contains three counts. The government alleges that KCKPS violated FERPA by effectively preventing parents from inspecting their children’s education records and by failing to give parents an opportunity to challenge, correct, delete or supplement information contained in the district-created Gender Plans.

The third count alleges a PPRA violation, arguing that the district's process of evaluating whether a child’s parents should be excluded necessarily involves questioning or evaluating students about federally protected sensitive subjects without obtaining prior written parental consent.

The Justice Department is asking a federal judge to declare the district's practices unlawful and issue an injunction barring enforcement of the guidelines or similar policies. The government is also seeking to require KCKPS to give parents access to procedures for challenging their children's records and to obtain written parental consent before conducting surveys, analyses or evaluations concerning subjects protected by PPRA.