BURSTThe Department of Education is investigating Maine over reported concerns that school districts are using privacy laws to keep information about students away from their parents, alleging the state's Department of Education is violating the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act (FERPA).
The federal department is taking issue with district policies that allegedly allow schools to create “gender plans” to help transgender students but “claim those plans are not education records under FERPA and therefore not available to parents,” it said.
“Parents and guardians have the right to access their child’s education records to guide and safeguard their child’s mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Any policy to the contrary is both illegal and immoral,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon.
FERPA gives a legal right to parents to access their children’s educational records.
The Hill has reached out to Maine's Department of Education for comment.
The investigation comes a day after the Education Department launched a similar inquiry against California over a new law that says schools cannot disclose a student’s gender identity to their parents.
Both investigations were started before the federal agency put out a “Dear Colleague” letter to chief state school officers and superintendents regarding federally funded schools FERPA obligations.
The letter stresses schools must provide all education records of a student to their parents, including ones involving an individual’s gender identity.
“Parents are the most natural protectors of their children. Yet many states and school districts have enacted policies that imply students need protection from their parents,” said McMahon.
“These states and school districts have turned the concept of privacy on its head—prioritizing the privileges of government officials over the rights of parents and wellbeing of families. Going forward, the correct application of FERPA will be to empower all parents to protect their children from the radical ideologies that have taken over many schools,” she added.
Since President Trump took office, he has repeatedly targeted transgender athletes in schools, including an executive order barring transgender girls from playing on women's sports teams. The Education Department has launched several investigations into schools over this order.
It has also paused federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Maine system over alleged violations of the executive order. Both schools said they were in compliance with the NCAA, which no longer allows transgender athletes to play on the sports team they choose.
The actions against Maine come after Trump publicly clashed with the state's governor last month at the White House over the issue.
“We are the federal law. You better do it because you’re not going to get federal funding,” the president told Gov. Janet Mills (D).
"See you in court," she replied.
Trump has since called for "a full throated apology" from Mills as his administration moves against her state.
"While the State of Maine has apologized for their Governor’s strong, but totally incorrect, statement about men playing in women’s sports while at the White House Governor’s Conference, we have not heard from the Governor herself, and she is the one that matters in such cases," he wrote on Truth Social last weekend.
“Therefore, we need a full throated apology from the Governor herself, and a statement that she will never make such an unlawful challenge to the Federal Government again, before this case can be settled,” he continued. “I’m sure she will be able to do that quite easily.”