The U.S. Department of Education is investigating Palo Alto Unified, San Francisco Unified and North Monterey County Unified over allegations that students were asked to disclose sensitive information—including sexual orientation, gender identity, race, family finances and immigration status—without their parents' knowledge or consent. The department's Student Privacy Policy Office is examining whether the districts violated the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA); the allegations are not established findings.
What the Federal Law Requires
According to the New York Post, which first reported the probe, the department is examining whether the districts crossed a line drawn by the PPRA. The Post reported that the law requires notice and written consent before certain surveys, evaluations or analyses, and that violations can lead to enforcement actions and potential loss of federal funding. The Pennsylvania Department of Education's summary describes the restriction as applying when students are required, as part of an applicable program, to take a survey, analysis or evaluation that reveals protected information—not to every classroom activity or survey. Protected categories include political and religious beliefs, mental health, sexual behavior, illegal or self-incriminating conduct, family relationships and income. San Francisco Unified's parent-rights guidance says parents must receive notice and an opportunity to opt their child out of other protected-information surveys regardless of funding source.
The alleged questionnaires reportedly surfaced as part of district ethnic studies curricula, and parents have accused the districts of ignoring requests to review ethnic studies materials or providing only partial access, the Post's reporting states. Schools are generally required to make all curriculum available to parents for review on request. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said parents have the right to opt their children out of these kinds of surveys, and said specific reasons prompted the federal investigations into the California districts, according to the same report. McMahon made her remarks while speaking Thursday at the Ronald Reagan Ranch Center for the Young America's Foundation in Santa Barbara.
What Parents Can Verify About Survey Rules
The PPRA standard is not a blanket requirement that parents consent to every classroom activity or survey: the Pennsylvania Department of Education's summary focuses on students required to take a sensitive-topic survey as part of an applicable program. SFUSD's published guidance says parents should receive notice and an opportunity to opt students out of protected-information surveys not funded by the Education Department, but that general guidance does not establish whether the district followed those procedures in this case. The sources cited here do not establish whether survey instruments or specific parent-notification procedures were available for the matters under investigation at Palo Alto Unified or North Monterey County Unified. As a separate-program comparison, a 2025-26 California Healthy Kids Survey consent form hosted on NMUSD's website says participation is voluntary and requires a parent's permission. That form concerns a separate survey program and is not evidence about the districts under investigation.
Who the Districts Serve
The three districts differ in size and geography. Palo Alto Unified enrolls around 10,000 students, San Francisco Unified serves more than 55,000, and North Monterey County Unified—which covers Castroville, Prunedale, Moss Landing, Aromas and parts of Salinas—serves roughly 4,200 students who are mostly Hispanic and socioeconomically disadvantaged, per the Post. Frank Miller, quoted in the report, said students should not be pressured to disclose intimate details or rank aspects of their identities by privilege. The reporting also describes allegedly required classroom activities called “wheel of power/privilege” or “mapping my identities” as part of the districts' ethnic studies coursework.
Palo Alto's Ethnic Studies Timeline
Palo Alto Unified's path to its ethnic studies requirement has been anything but linear. Superintendent Don Austin announced an indefinite pause on making the course a graduation requirement in January 2025, before the Palo Alto school board voted 3-2 that same month to require it starting with the Class of 2029, according to the Post's account. The district's own materials confirm that outcome: Palo Alto Unified School District says Ethnic Studies will be a new graduation requirement for the Class of 2029, beginning with the ninth-grade class of 2025-26, and its Board of Education approved the course outline on January 23, 2025, confirming the requirement would stand regardless of a state funding-triggered mandate. The district also says students in its fall 2024 ethnic studies pilot were surveyed about their experiences and perspectives once the course was completed.
San Francisco's Longer History With the Subject
San Francisco Unified has offered ethnic studies since 2010, and its school board made it a two-semester graduation requirement in 2021. On June 30, 2025, Superintendent Dr. Maria Su announced a comprehensive plan for the district's ethnic studies curriculum beginning in the 2025-26 school year, according to the district's own 2025-2026 Ethnic Studies Plan. The district says students may request a different course that satisfies the requirement if they prefer not to take the designated class.
California's Stalled Statewide Mandate
The investigations land against the backdrop of a statewide ethnic studies mandate that still hasn't taken effect. California passed AB 101 in 2021, making it the first state to require ethnic studies for graduation, with implementation set for the Class of 2029-30 — but only once the legislature fully funds it, according to EdSource. That funding, estimated at roughly $276 million annually by Spectrum News 1, was left out of the 2025 state budget, and the requirement remains contingent on a future appropriation, according to The Sacramento Bee. As a result, California districts are not currently bound by a state ethnic studies graduation requirement and have been left to decide individually whether to make the course optional, require it anyway, or pause rollout altogether, EdSource reports. Some, like Los Angeles Unified and Santa Paula Unified, have moved forward on their own timelines, while Ventura Unified has not, per Spectrum News 1's reporting.
Part of a Broader Federal Pattern
The California probe is not an isolated action. The Education Department's Student Privacy Policy Office found the California Department of Education in violation of federal student records law in January and said state policies pressured schools to hide students' gender transitions from parents, per the Post's report. The department has also opened a Title IX investigation into Los Angeles Unified over policies it said automatically reassign teachers accused of sexual misconduct with students — an allegation LAUSD has disputed — plus sexual misconduct investigations into Tulare City and Wilsona school districts and an investigation into Etiwanda School District over complaints that it failed to protect Jewish students from antisemitic harassment. Separately, the Trump administration launched an enforcement action against Los Angeles Unified over a policy that allegedly kept students' gender identities confidential from parents, according to the Los Angeles Times. In Massachusetts, the department investigated two districts over a student's gender transition, weighing whether either the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act or PPRA had been violated — part of what Education Week describes as at least the 11th such investigation the administration has launched citing those privacy laws in transgender-student-policy disputes.
