The U.S. Justice Department sued Anne Arundel County Public Schools in federal court in Maryland on October 27, alleging that the district's gender identity policy violates two federal student privacy laws by keeping information from parents.
The complaint, filed by the department's Civil Rights Division in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, says the district's rules direct staff to ask about and record students' chosen names and pronouns without telling parents, treat information about a student's gender identity as confidential, and pass that information to the Maryland State Department of Education without notice to families. The department says this violates the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which gives parents the right to see and challenge their children's education records, and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA), which requires parental consent or notice before students are asked about certain sensitive topics.
"Schools should not discuss preferred pronouns or 'gender identity' with a student without parental notification and consent," Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in a statement, WMAR-2 News reported.
The district disagrees. "AACPS disagrees with the allegations and stands by its compliance with FERPA and PPRA," the school system said in a statement to WMAR. It said it had been in regular contact with the Justice Department "in a good faith effort to resolve their concerns," and called it "regrettable that the Department chose to pursue litigation rather than continuing constructive dialogue."
The suit centers on Regulation JQ-RA, which carries out a 2021 board policy titled "Safe and Inclusive Environments for LGBTQ+ Students." According to the complaint, the regulation tells staff to work with a student and the student's parents on a support plan "unless there is a genuine safety concern for the student's physical, emotional, or mental health safety as determined by the principal or the principal's designee." The department argues that parents have no way to challenge that decision.
The dispute did not start this week. The complaint says the U.S. Education Secretary found on July 22 that the district was out of substantial compliance with FERPA, and the Justice Department demanded changes on July 29. On August 18, the school board added language to the regulation saying nothing in it limits parents' FERPA rights, including the right to see a student's complete education record. Superintendent Mark T. Bedell told families the next day that no policy may limit parental rights under FERPA, including for records about gender identity or preferred names and pronouns. The department says those changes do not go far enough.
The complaint also describes one family, identified as John and Jane Doe, whose daughter is now a senior at an Anne Arundel high school. It says the parents received an email from a school staff member in December 2025 that used a male name for their daughter, that the staff member had asked students one-on-one about their preferred names and pronouns, and that when the parents asked for records, they were told some required an appointment and others a subpoena. The same family filed its own federal lawsuit against district officials in July.
The Justice Department is asking the court to declare the district's policies unlawful, order it to stop enforcing the regulation, give parents a hearing to challenge what is in their children's records, and get written parental consent before surveying students on topics such as sexual behavior, religion, or mental health.
Anne Arundel County Public Schools had about 85,000 students in 128 schools in the 2024-25 school year, according to federal data. For how parents can request records under FERPA, see allk12's guide on how to get your child's school records.
Sources
United States v. Board of Education of Anne Arundel County, No. 1:26-cv-04499 (D. Md., filed October 27, 2026), complaint
WMAR-2 News: US Justice Department suing Anne Arundel school district
Fox45 Baltimore: Anne Arundel County Schools updates gender identity policy after DOJ cites FERPA concerns
Enrollment from allk12's analysis of National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data, 2024-25.
