Key Facts

• The Justice Department sued the Kansas City, Kansas, school district for its transgender student policies.
• The district allows use of preferred names and pronouns and sometimes withholds information from parents if the student requests.
• The Education Department found four Kansas districts violated the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) for these policies.
• Kansas does not have a law requiring schools to notify parents about students' gender-related changes, unlike some other states.
• The lawsuit seeks to force the district to stop hiding this information and to give parents more access to student records.
• The Department of Justice emphasizes that parental rights are important in public schools.
• Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach has publicly criticized schools for hiding transgender students’ use of different names or pronouns from parents.
• The lawsuit is the first by President Donald Trump’s administration to use FERPA to argue parents must be informed about their child's gender identity changes.