The School District of the Chathams has agreed to permanently scrap a policy that let guidance counselors decide on their own whether to tell parents their child was socially transitioning to a different gender, settling a federal lawsuit filed by Moms for Liberty and two district parents. The board voted 7-0 on October 12 to approve the settlement, which also requires the district to never readopt the policy or anything similar to it.
The district's Policy 5145.7 had been on the books since January 2024, with the board saying at the time it was meant to create a safe, supportive and inclusive environment for students, according to northjersey.com. Moms for Liberty and two anonymous parents sued the Chatham school board in August in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey in Newark, arguing the policy let children socially transition at school without their parents ever finding out, as reported by Latin Times.
The lawsuit also claimed the policy violated parental rights and ran afoul of a 2026 U.S. Supreme Court decision, per northjersey.com's reporting. Beyond the parental-notification dispute, the complaint raised a separate First Amendment compelled-speech claim, since the policy's disciplinary provisions could subject students to suspension or expulsion for refusing to use a classmate's chosen name or pronouns, Latin Times reported.
A Board That Initially Dug In
Chatham's reversal came after months of resistance from district leadership. At a June 15 public board meeting, Board President Ann Ciccarelli told attendees that the U.S. Supreme Court's emergency order in Mirabelli v. Bonta was not binding on New Jersey public school districts, according to the New Jersey Globe. That March, the Supreme Court had issued a 6-3 emergency order vacating a federal appeals court stay, letting a lower-court injunction against California school gender-confidentiality policies take effect while the underlying case continued, per the law firm Chasan Lamparello Mallon & Cappuzzo.
Neither Ciccarelli nor Superintendent Emily Sortino responded to a request for comment, nor did a Garden State Equality spokesperson, northjersey.com reported. Christopher Ferrara, senior counsel at the Thomas More Society — the Chicago-based conservative Roman Catholic group that filed the suit on behalf of Moms for Liberty and the two parents — said no school has authority to transition a child behind the parents' backs. Ferrara said the board maintained a secret transition policy despite telling New Jersey parents the ruling did not apply to them, and that families had to go to federal court to protect their children, per the same northjersey.com account.
Parents Say They Faced Threats
The two parents who sued, both Moms for Liberty members, said they were threatened after opposing the policy, according to the report. Tina Descovich, CEO and co-founder of Moms for Liberty, said the parents endured doxxing and harassment for asking the district to respect their role as primary educators. Descovich said the settlement secured a promise protecting every family in the Chathams and that she hoped school boards nationwide would take note, adding that Moms for Liberty would continue supporting parents in districts that come between them and their children.
The Moms for Liberty lawsuit argued the Supreme Court decision ended school boards' usurpation of parental rights and said the policies interfered with a parent's right to guide children's religious development. Notably, the Supreme Court itself did not rule on the constitutionality of the underlying policies, per the ACLU's characterization cited in the northjersey.com report; the emergency order instead signaled that parents could succeed in objecting to certain policies protecting students from forced outing. The lawsuit cited examples involving males transitioning to female but did not include examples of females transitioning to males, according to the same reporting.
New Policy Manual, Written Guarantees for Staff
Chatham's gender policy was formally repealed on September 14, and the district went further by replacing its entire policy manual with mandatory policies from a new policy provider, per northjersey.com. Under the settlement, Moms for Liberty agreed to dismiss its complaint against the district with prejudice. Every current and future employee in the School District of the Chathams will also receive a copy of the written settlement committing the district to respect parental rights, according to Daily Voice.
The settlement leans on more than just the Mirabelli order. It also cites Mahmoud v. Taylor, the June 2025 Supreme Court ruling that found public school policies substantially interfering with parents' right to guide their children's religious upbringing trigger strict scrutiny under the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause, according to Becket Law.
A Fight Playing Out Statewide
Chatham's about-face lands amid a broader clash between state and federal authority over these policies. Back in May 2023, New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin filed civil rights complaints against the Hanover Township, Middletown, Marlboro, and Manalapan-Englishtown school boards to block policies requiring staff to notify parents if a student requested to change their gender identity or pronouns, according to NJ Spotlight News. In February 2025, a New Jersey appellate court upheld orders preliminarily blocking Hanover Township and Monmouth County school boards from enforcing mandatory parental-notification rules while state administrative proceedings remained pending, per NJ Courts records. That same ruling pointed to New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination, which designates public schools as places of public accommodation barred from discriminating based on sex, gender identity, or gender expression.
After the Supreme Court's spring action in Mirabelli, state lawmakers publicly called on New Jersey officials in March to pause ongoing litigation against local school boards and re-evaluate the state's transgender student guidelines, according to New Jersey 101.5. Chatham settled and rescinded its policy, but the underlying tension between state civil rights enforcement and the newer federal constitutional rulings remains unresolved for the hundreds of other school districts across New Jersey still weighing how to respond.
