Justice Department sues Kansas City, Kansas schools over transgender student guidelines

The Civil Rights Division filed jointly with the U.S. attorney for the District of Kansas.

The lawsuit follows Education Department efforts to secure the district’s compliance with federal law.

The department said the district implements the guideline without the knowledge of many in the school community, including parents.

PPRA requires prior written parental consent before a school requires a child to submit to a survey, analysis, or evaluation that reveals sensitive information.

Dhillon rejected the district’s claim that it complies with federal law.

Dhillon declined to identify the other districts under investigation.

The administration has said it will pull federal funding from several school districts over transgender policies.

The federal government advised the district on Aug. 12 that its guidance violated FERPA and PPRA.

The complaint says the government determined the district would not voluntarily comply.

The U.S. attorney’s office for Kansas referred questions about the lawsuit to the Justice Department’s Office of Public Affairs.

The Examiner said the Education Department is asking a court to block the district’s internal transgender-student guidance.

On July 1 the Education Department determined the district was out of substantial compliance with FERPA.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas.

On Aug. 25 the Education Department reached the same conclusion under PPRA.

The government seeks an order stopping enforcement of the guidance, letting parents challenge or correct records, and requiring written consent before covered evaluations.

Parents are listed among the people who may attend the planning meeting.

The Justice Department alleges a substantially similar internal guideline has been in use since 2024.

The Supreme Court is preparing to hear a separate parental-rights case from Washington state this fall.

In International Partners for Ethical Care v. Ferguson, the justices will consider whether parents have standing to challenge a Washington law on runaway minors seeking gender-related drugs or surgeries.

The Examiner said that Washington case does not directly scrutinize a school district’s social-transition policy.

The justices separately declined to hear challenges to similar school policies in Massachusetts and Florida.

A federal judge in March ordered California to pay $4.52 million in attorney fees to parents and teachers who challenged that state’s secret-transition policy.

The guidance says a student or parents should contact the school if a student is transgender or gender-nonconforming and is seeking accommodations.

Those requests are to be evaluated by student-services and equity administrators and the district’s attorney.

The district serves 21,000 students.

In April the Justice Department said four Kansas school districts were in violation of FERPA.

The administration has previously threatened to cut federal funding from districts in Maryland and Michigan over transgender-student policies.

California’s lawyers had argued that the policies were not as broad as the plaintiffs suggested.

President Trump has sought to ban transgender girls and women from female sports and restrict minors’ access to gender-affirming healthcare.

The lawsuit alleges an administrator referred to a transgender guideline not available to the school community and safeguarded by gatekeepers.

The department said the federal government can sue to enforce conditions on recipients of federal grants.

That federal funding is about 16 percent of the district’s budget.

The lawsuit alleges another employee talked about supporting students whose culture is against LGBTQIA relationships.

Shawnee Mission, Olathe, and Topeka public schools have also faced federal scrutiny over transgender-student policies.

In April the Education Department said a monthslong investigation found the districts were violating federal law by allowing students to use restrooms, locker rooms, and athletics aligned with gender identity.

Last week the Justice Department announced an agreement with Topeka Public Schools.

The department said the districts’ policies allow schools to conceal different pronouns, names, or diploma names from parents.

The department said it proposed similar agreements to Olathe and Shawnee Mission, and that both refused to voluntarily comply.

In June the Education Department told the three districts they had 10 calendar days to comply with proposed resolution agreements.

Shawnee Mission denied in April that it violated federal law and said it was prepared to defend its rights in court.

Some school districts have sued to challenge similar threats from the Education Department.