Key Highlights
- The Trump-aligned lawfare group America First Legal (AFL) submitted a federal civil rights complaint Thursday accusing the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) system of violating the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act ("FERPA") and infringing upon fundamental parental rights protected by the Fourteenth Amendment through its "Regulation 2603-Gender-Expansive and Transgender Students Guidance Document."In particular, AFL is taking issue with some of the district's guidance that tells educators to refrain from "out[ing]" a student to their parents in district-wide information systems that they have access to, while requiring name and pronoun changes that students request to be made in the district's information systems that are faculty-facing only.
- The guidance even goes so far as to tell educators in certain instances where a student feels unsafe to leave any pronoun or nickname information out of district-wide databases altogether, and only use a student's alternative name or pronouns while at school.
- CATHOLIC GROUP ASKS SCOTUS TO BLOCK CALIFORNIA LAW AGAINST REVEALING STUDENTS' GENDER IDENTITIES TO PARENTS "FCPS has built a two-track system — one reality inside the school, and a sanitized version for parents.
- That is exactly the kind of deliberate concealment FERPA forbids," Senior Counsel at AFL, Ian Prior, said.
- Fairfax County school bus is pictured above () According to FCPS's guidance to faculty and teachers, if a student wants to socially transition with a new name, educators should leave their new name out of the district's official records that are viewable by parents, and only change them in the records viewable by just district officials.
