A Maryland school district has updated its gender identity policy that a lawsuit and the Trump administration claimed improperly prevented parents from accessing information about their child.
The policy from Anne Arundel County Public Schools classified a student’s gender identity as confidential medical information, which the Trump administration said violated a federal law over student education records and threatened legal action if it were not changed.
The issue arose after the parents of an Anne Arundel High School student filed a lawsuit last month where they said they learned their child was using a name and pronouns at school that didn’t align with their biological sex. When the parents asked to review their child’s school records, the district declined to disclose them, according to the lawsuit.
Weeks later, the U.S. Education Department announced it would partner with the Justice Department to take enforcement action against the county school system if the policy was not changed, including possible loss of federal funding.
On Wednesday, Anne Arundel Schools Superintendent Mark Bedell announced a change in policy to clarify the district will not interfere with parents’ rights to access information under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. The updated policy, among other things, removed language that directed staff to not disclose students’ gender identity unless legally required to do so.
“No policy, guideline, or practice may limit or otherwise interfere with parental rights under FERPA,” Bedell said in the statement to families. “This includes any information maintained in education records that relates to gender identity, transgender status, sexual orientation, preferred name, or preferred pronouns.”
The change comes just days before the start of the school year.
The Justice Department declined to comment on the district’s policy change.
The Anne Arundel regulation allows students to go by a name or pronouns that correspond with their gender identity, not just their sex, without requiring approval from their parents. The policy tells staff to involve the student’s family in creating a support plan to accommodate their gender identity “unless there is a genuine safety concern for the student’s physical, emotional, or mental health safety.”
Under the old version of the policy, if the district was legally required to disclose a student’s gender identity, staff were directed to give the student a chance to share that information themselves. The updated policy has removed that language. It also still says gender identity, legal name or sex assigned at birth may constitute confidential medical information.
The parents’ lawsuit, filed by the conservative group America First Legal and Consovoy McCarthy PLLC, seeks to repeal the policy allowing faculty to refer to students by names and pronouns that align with their gender identity rather than their sex at birth without needing parental consent. It also asks to add an opt-out option for any district rule that “facilitates or affirms a student’s gender transition at school or withholds information from parents regarding such matters.”
America First Legal did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday about the district’s revised policy.
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