The federal government is suing Anne Arundel County Public Schools over its LGBTQ+ policies, despite the district making recent changes to its policies following pressure from the Trump administration.
The U.S. Department of Justice sued the Maryland district on Tuesday under privacy laws — the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment — which the administration has increasingly utilized to target LGBTQ+ inclusion practices nationwide.
"Parents have a right not to be shut out of participation in decisions regarding their children’s mental health," the DOJ lawsuit says. "Gender dysphoria is a condition that has an important bearing on a child’s mental health."
The lawsuit claims Anne Arundel County staff called a student — referred to in the case as Mary Doe — by a "male name" that "didn't match her legal name." The complaint alleges that district staff disclosed the male name to other parents, but still withheld it from Doe's own parents. In addition, DOJ said, Doe’s parents received an email in 2025 from the district containing their child's "male name."
"When Mary’s parents tried to exercise their rights to their daughter’s education records, AACPS staff told them some records required an appointment and others a subpoena," the lawsuit claims.
The process of obtaining the name from Doe was also "illegal," the complaint said. At the start of the semester, a district staff member had asked each student for their preferred name and held one-on-one meetings with students to discuss preferred pronouns — including with Doe — without involving parents in either process, the complaint said.
“Schools should not discuss preferred pronouns or ‘gender identity’ with a student without parental notification and consent,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in a Tuesday statement. “Parents should not be lied to, stonewalled, or branded as ‘safety concerns’ when they ask to see the education records that reveal what schools are secretly doing to their children."
The district did not respond to K-12 Dive's request for comment in time for publication on Wednesday.
Trump administration influences LGBTQ+ policy via privacy laws
The Justice Department lawsuit was filed following an investigation into Anne Arundel County from the U.S. Department of Education earlier this year, which resulted in a referral to the Justice Department in July.
Following a letter sent to Anne Arundel County from the Justice Department, the district said on Aug. 19 that it was adjusting its policies and procedures.
Superintendent Mark Bedell said in an Aug. 19 letter to the school community that the district changed its regulations for “safe and inclusive environments for LGBTQ+ students,” as a result. The new policies specified that parents and guardians retain “the right to inspect and review their student’s complete education record.”
“As made clear by these amendments, no policy, guideline, or practice may limit or otherwise interfere with parental rights under FERPA, and this includes any information maintained in education records that relates to gender identity, transgender status, sexual orientation, preferred name, or preferred pronouns,” said Bedell.
However, the Justice Department said in its lawsuit that the policy change was not enough to satisfy its demands, and that the policy changes "do not adequately protect parents’ rights under FERPA and PPRA."
The Justice Department said that the district failed to incorporate into its new policy parents' "rights" to challenge or change the content of their child’s education record if they "believe any content that reflect[s] a student’s self-identified gender information is inaccurate, misleading, or otherwise in violation of the student’s privacy right."
The Justice Department's lawsuit follows similar moves from the Education Department cracking down on LGBTQ+ policies, including "gender plans."
In September, the Education Department referred two cases from Kansas — at Olathe Public Schools and Shawnee Mission Public Schools — to the Justice Department for failure to come to an agreement after their own investigations. Those districts, along with two other Kansas districts, were found to have violated FERPA in April for their LGBTQ+ policies.
Earlier this week, the Education Department announced investigations into three California school districts over activities related to an ethnic studies course in each of the districts that included a “Wheel of Power/Privilege” or “Mapping My Identities” activities — or both. The department described the curriculum as “invasive questionnaires” and therefore subject to PPRA.
The activities included references to "gender identity," "sexual orientation," "race" and other descriptors like body size and ability.
In early October, the Trump administration reiterated a warning to state attorneys general that schools must comply with federal privacy laws, saying that “many superintendents and school officials continue patterns of noncompliance.” The warning said that in addition to forms and surveys, “anything else that can be used to evaluate a student’s mental health” will need written parental consent.
