Egregious Abuse: Feds Torch California Schools

Blindfolded Lady Justice with scales, Supreme Court background.

California schools were secretly hiding children’s gender transitions from their own parents — and now the courts have finally said enough.

Story Highlights

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in March 2026 that California’s parent notification ban likely violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
Following that ruling, the 9th Circuit reversed itself and blocked California’s law, allowing schools to inform parents about their child’s gender identity at school.
The U.S. Department of Education found California violated federal law by pressuring schools to hide students’ gender transitions from parents using secret files.
The Thomas More Society called the Supreme Court’s decision “the most significant parental rights ruling in a generation.”

Supreme Court Delivers Major Win for Parents

On March 2, 2026, the Supreme Court blocked California’s law that stopped schools from telling parents about their child’s gender identity at school. The vote was 6-3, split along ideological lines. The case, known as Mirabelli v. Bonta, was brought by parents and teachers who said California’s policies violated their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. The Court found that parents were likely to win on their religious freedom claim and their right to direct how their children are raised. ^[14]

The Court said California’s policies “substantially interfere” with parents’ right to guide their children’s religious upbringing. That triggered the toughest legal test — called strict scrutiny — which California’s law failed. The majority wrote that the policies “cut out the primary protectors of children’s best interests: their parents.” The Court also said parents have a long-recognized right not to be shut out of decisions about their children’s mental health. ^[2]

9th Circuit Reverses Course After SCOTUS Order

Before the Supreme Court stepped in, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals — based in San Francisco — had put a lower court’s pro-parent ruling on hold. After the Supreme Court’s order, the 9th Circuit reversed itself and lifted that hold. That means the injunction blocking California’s law is now in effect. Schools can tell parents when their child changes their gender identity or pronouns at school, without needing the student’s permission first. ^[13]

The lower court’s injunction also bars schools from “misleading parents about their children’s gender presentation at school.” It requires schools to follow parents’ instructions about what names and pronouns are used for their child. California had argued its policies were not a blanket secrecy rule, but rather a flexible framework that weighed student safety. The Supreme Court rejected that reasoning, saying the state’s safety interest could be served through narrower means — like enforcing existing child-abuse laws. ^[2]

Federal Government Found California Broke the Law

The Supreme Court battle was not the only blow to California’s policy. The U.S. Department of Education found that California violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act — a federal law giving parents the right to access their children’s school records. Investigators found the California Department of Education pressured schools to hide gender-transition information from parents. Schools were even keeping secret “gender support plans” in separate files specifically to keep parents from seeing them. ^[6]

Major win for parental rights: 9th Circuit reverses itself and blocks California's parent notification ban after SCOTUS ruled parents have a constitutional right to know when their kids show signs of gender… #ParentalRights #AB1955 #California #9thCircuit https://t.co/o5MhLGYxJB

— @GlobalRightWatch (@AutonomusRepost) June 19, 2026

Federal investigators concluded that California’s laws and guidance — including AB 1955, which banned schools from automatically notifying parents about a child’s gender transition — effectively forced school districts to break federal law. The Department of Education called it an “egregious abuse of authority.” This finding adds another layer of legal pressure on California, which receives federal funding and is required to comply with federal privacy law as a condition of that funding. ^[6]

Parents’ Rights Movement Gains Ground Nationwide

This case is part of a broader fight playing out across the country. Similar disputes have appeared in other states over school pronoun policies, gender support plans, and teacher speech rules. In a separate California case, the Chino Valley Unified School District won the right to keep its parental notification policy in place after a court found that children who openly transition at school do not have a privacy right against their own parents. That case is now closed. ^[3]

The Thomas More Society, the conservative legal group that represented the parents in Mirabelli v. Bonta, called the Supreme Court’s ruling “the most significant parental rights decision in a generation.” The case is not fully over — it will continue in the lower courts. But for now, California cannot enforce its law. Parents have the right to know what is happening with their children at school. The Supreme Court made clear that the Constitution does not allow the government to keep those secrets. ^[4]