The Trump administration announced an investigation Thursday into the state of California, saying its new law protecting transgender students from unwanted disclosures to their parents violated federal law.
The move could empower conservative school boards and parent activists in California and across the country, who have resisted efforts from liberal educators and policymakers to affirm transgender identities.
The California law, known as the Safety Act, prevents school boards from requiring staff members to tell parents when a student asks to use a different name or pronoun. It was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, in July and went into effect on Jan. 1. The act came after more than a dozen school boards in conservative areas tried to mandate parental notification.
Democratic leaders in the state have criticized disclosure requirements as a “forced outing” that would harm the well-being of students. “Choosing when to ‘come out’ by disclosing an L.G.B.T.Q.+ identity, and to whom, are deeply personal decisions,” the law states, “impacting health and safety as well as critical relationships, that every L.G.B.T.Q.+ person has the right to make for themselves.”
But Republicans have said that notification was a matter of parental rights. The Trump administration argued on Thursday that California’s policy contradicts FERPA, or the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a federal law that allows parents to access their children’s educational records.
“Teachers and school counselors should not be in the business of advising minors entrusted to their care on consequential decisions about their sexual identity and mental health,” the education secretary, Linda McMahon, said in a written statement. “That responsibility and privilege lies with a parent or trusted loved one.”
California’s law does not prohibit conversations about gender identity between school staff members and parents. But it does prevent schools from adopting policies requiring disclosure.
California Democrats, including the state superintendent of public instruction, Tony Thurmond, and the attorney general, Rob Bonta, have been outspoken in fighting such policies. Alberto Carvalho, the leader of the state’s largest school district, in Los Angeles, has also vowed to resist Trump administration efforts to prevent schools from affirming transgender identities.
Governor Newsom, in his recent podcast interview with Charlie Kirk, a conservative youth leader, defended the state law as giving teachers “the freedom not to snitch.” Mr. Kirk had confronted the governor for signing “a law where school districts can’t even tell parents if their kids are trans.”
“Not true,” Mr. Newsom replied. “They can. They just can’t get fired for not doing that.”
That exchange, however, came during the same interview in which Mr. Newsom bucked other Democratic leaders by saying that it was “deeply unfair” for transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports.
Mr. Newsom’s office did not immediately respond Thursday to the investigation announced by the Trump administration. The governor has withheld criticism of various moves by the administration as his state seeks more than $40 billion in federal aid to recover from the Los Angeles wildfires.
Leaders of California’s Education Department disputed the Trump administration’s assertion that the state law violates the federal act. They said that parents can still access their child’s records upon request.
“I have heard from so many students and families whose safety has been impacted by forced outing policies,” Mr. Thurmond, a Democrat, said in a statement. “To our L.G.B.T.Q.+ youth and families, I want to make sure that you hear us as loudly as we hear you: You are heard, you are protected, and you are loved.”
Few issues in education have been more divisive than transgender notification requirements, both around kitchen tables and on the political stage.
California’s Safety Act has been of keen interest to Elon Musk, the Tesla chief executive and Trump donor who is leading the administration’s government efficiency efforts — and who has a transgender daughter from whom he is estranged.
Mr. Musk called the law “the final straw” in his decision to relocate his SpaceX headquarters from California to Texas.
Several Republican-leaning states have passed laws requiring that parents be informed when their children question or change gender identities. The issue is a major priority for the conservative parental rights movement, which gained energy during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.
For educators and counselors, the issue is complex. They often seek to balance a student’s nervousness in approaching parents with the knowledge that familial openness and support is crucial to the well-being of children and teenagers.
They also seek to protect students from abuse or neglect, and they are concerned that in rare cases, parents’ reactions to gender identity disclosure could present a threat.
Professional guidelines from the American School Counselor Association emphasize the importance of family engagement when counselors work with L.G.B.T.Q. students. They also state that counselors should affirm students’ chosen gender identities, names and pronouns, even in cases where parents may be unaware.
Chris Ward, a Democratic assemblyman who wrote the California law, said that he was confident it would hold up to legal scrutiny.
“Requiring government school officials to expose students without their consent runs afoul of the U.S. Constitution,” he said Thursday. “We believe it’s morally invasive and it’s counter to overwhelming mental health evidence on the subject.”
The federal investigation of the country’s largest public school system, in its most famously liberal state, represents a bold move from the Education Department, an agency that President Trump has vowed to shut down.
Previous efforts have been much smaller in scope. For example, the administration began an investigation into Denver Public Schools, for transforming a restroom for girls into an all-gender one.
Mr. Trump has also signed an executive order threatening to withhold federal funds from schools that recognize transgender identities. But his ability to do so is limited by the fact that Congress controls most federal funding to K-12 schools. Those federal funds account for only about 10 percent of school budgets nationwide.
