Today, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division launched a compliance review into four California public school districts: Graves Elementary School District, San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), Santa Rita Union School District, and Soledad Unified School District (collectively, the California School Districts) regarding instruction on sexual orientation and gender ideology (SOGI) in grades pre-K-12.
“This Department of Justice will not tolerate local school authorities trampling on the rights of parents concerning the education of their children,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The Supreme Court’s recent decisions in Mahmoud and Mirabelli have put all school districts on notice: policies that keep parents in the dark about sexuality and gender ideology in the classroom must end now.”
The review will examine whether, and to what extent, the California School Districts have notified parents of their right to opt their children out of such instruction. Under California law, sex education must include SOGI topics. While parental notice and opt-out provisions apply to “all or part of” sex education, SFUSD, for example, has previously advised its teachers that neither parental permission nor notification are required to teach or discuss SOGI topics. Further, SOGI topics appear to be embedded in California’s social studies and history classes. The compliance review will also assess policies that permit access to single-sex intimate spaces (such as bathrooms and locker rooms) and girls’ sports teams based on purported gender identity rather than biological sex.
The review will examine whether the California School Districts, which all receive taxpayer funding, are adhering to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. DOJ will also evaluate whether what actions, if any, the California School Districts have taken in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions in Mirabelli v. Bonta and Mahmoud v. Taylor, which reiterated the nation’s extensive precedents on parental rights.
The Civil Rights Division has not reached any conclusions about the subject matter of the investigation.
