Trump policies seek to deliver on parental notification promise for students’ gender transition

During his second presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised to "protect the rights of parents" by prohibiting children from adopting new gender identities without parental consent. 

Most medical care for minors, including gender-affirming medical care, already requires parental consent. This was true before Trump's presidency. 

When he issued the promise, Trump did not specify which parental rights he was referring to, but they likely relate to some states' policies allowing students to transition socially at school. These policies permit students to adopt new names or pronouns without requiring school officials to notify parents. 

Several federal lawmakers have introduced legislation that would require schools to obtain parental consent before supporting a child's gender transition, but none of the bills have progressed.

Currently, state policies dictate whether parents must be notified about children identifying as transgender at school. Some states prioritize student privacy, advising teachers not to inform parents without students' consent. Other states prioritize notifying parents. Many states have no policies addressing the issue. 

Most states that require parental notification did so before Trump's presidency. Only West Virginia adopted its law during his most recent term. 

Trump has taken some executive action regarding social transition in schools, but its impact is muddled.

Trump signed a Jan. 29. 2025, executive order requiring members of his cabinet to explore rescinding federal funding from schools that supported students' social transition or did not disclose information about a child's gender identity to parents. 

He also directed the Justice Department to support legal efforts against teachers and school officials who "facilitate" the social transition of a student. 

"They haven't tried to prohibit schools from allowing social transition completely," said Rose Saxe, deputy director of the LGBT project at the ACLU. "Their focus, to date, is on trying to force schools to disclose this information to parents."

In March 2025, the Education Department notified schools receiving federal funding that under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, they could not withhold information from parents regarding a child's gender identity changes.

Since then, the DOE has opened investigations into California, Washington state, and Maine's education departments and four Kansas school districts, alleging that their policies on parental notification or gender identity changes violated FERPA. 

The Education Department announced Jan. 28 that its privacy office found California in violation of FERPA, partially because a 2024 state law prohibits schools from requiring parental notification of gender identity changes.

The DOE has not yet revoked California's funding, but the state attorney general sued the Trump administration, calling its findings "an unconstitutional attempt to impose new conditions on $4.9 billion in federal education funding." 

A federal judge issued a temporary order blocking the DOE from pulling funding while the lawsuit proceeds.

At least two parents have petitioned for their legal cases on this issue to be heard by the Supreme Court. One of them involves January Littlejohn, who was a guest at Trump's 2025 joint address to Congress.

Given the administration's continued pursuit of this promise, we rate it In the Works.