The Trump administration is escalating its crackdown on mental health screenings for students, stressing that the practice is noncompliant with parental rights laws if school officials administer them without first notifying parents and obtaining written consent from them.
The latest warning was sent to state attorneys general on Monday by the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice. It follows a Dear Colleague letter sent in August that described the Trump administration's approach to enforcement under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment.
"Both the Department of Education and the Department of Justice have clearly described activities that constitute noncompliance with parental rights laws," the Oct. 5 letter to states said. "Still, many superintendents and school officials continue patterns of noncompliance, behaving as if they will not be held accountable for maintaining policies that infringe parents’ rights. The conditions of federal funding under FERPA and PPRA are nonnegotiable."
The administration said that forms, surveys or "anything else that can be used to evaluate the student's mental health" need written parental consent. Opting out, the administration said, is “not sufficient.”
The administration has opened investigations at a rapid pace under the privacy laws to crack down on schools' policies related to LGBTQ+ students, such as creating gender support plans or using students' pronouns when they differ from the students' biological sex.
On Monday, the two federal agencies also said they were taking action against California's Los Angeles Unified School District over policies that the Trump administration says violate FERPA and PPRA. The policies tell district employees to “privately ask the student how they want to be referred to when communicating with parents/legal guardians” and to keep a student’s self-professed “gender identity” private or confidential — including from parents, the agencies said.
"At this time, LA Unified has not been notified of any new or additional enforcement actions by the U.S. Department of Justice," said an LAUSD spokesperson to K-12 Dive in an Oct. 6 emailed statement. "The Los Angeles Unified School District complies with all applicable state and federal laws and will continue to do so."
A 2024 California law prohibited school districts from outing LGBTQ+ students to their parents without their consent, and it has since been the crux of intense legal and political conflict.
In July, the two federal agencies announced joint investigations into Washington's Bethel School District and Colorado's Denver Public Schools under PPRA. Those investigations are pending.
The Education Department had also planned to amend regulations on the enforcement of both laws during August and September, according to its 2026 Unified Agenda, but it has not yet done so.
