The U.S. Department of Education says it is opening investigations into Albuquerque Public Schools and Santa Fe Public Schools over policies tied to students’ gender identity and how much information parents are allowed to see. The department’s Student Privacy Policy Office will examine whether the two districts violated federal student-privacy law, and officials say the inquiries are tied to concerns that school staff were barred from telling parents about a child’s gender identity or transition.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, the Student Privacy Policy Office “will investigate whether the schools violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA).” The department says “recent reports from Albuquerque Public Schools and Santa Fe Public Schools in New Mexico raise concerns that these districts maintain policies that prevent school personnel from sharing information about a child’s ‘gender transition’ or ‘gender identity’ with their parents.” These are allegations prompting an inquiry, not findings that either district broke the law.
What the Department Alleges in Each District
Per Source New Mexico, the department alleges that a district social worker with Albuquerque Public Schools was “prevented from sharing ‘gender identity’ information with parents.” The outlet also reports federal officials cited a Santa Fe form asking students what name and pronouns they wanted used in class, with assurances that “the teacher will keep what the students filled out confidential from parents.”
Albuquerque Public Schools responded by standing behind its existing practices. The district said “APS policies and procedures adhere to FERPA guidelines. We have been notified of the investigation and will respond through the appropriate channels,” the same report notes. APS’s own published directive on gender identity states that “students shall have the right to be addressed by a name and pronoun corresponding to their gender identity that is asserted at school,” according to the policy posted on the Albuquerque Public Schools website. That same directive also instructs that when staff contact a transgender student’s parent or guardian, they should use the student’s legal name and birth-assigned pronoun “unless the student or parent/legal guardian has specified otherwise.”
Santa Fe Says It Hasn't Been Contacted
Santa Fe Public Schools offered a different account of where things stand. The district said it had not been notified of an investigation, and that parental involvement and consent are required before a student’s name or gender marker can be changed in its official information system, the same Source New Mexico report states. Santa Fe Public Schools spokesperson Tara Melton told the outlet that as of Monday afternoon, the district had not been contacted by the Education Department about the investigation, though it would cooperate if it received an official inquiry, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
Part of a Much Larger Federal Push
The New Mexico inquiries land amid a broader nationwide campaign. The Albuquerque Journal, citing Education Week, reported the investigations were among at least 222 Education Department investigations into similar policies nationwide as of late October. A separate Education Week tracker described a September investigation elsewhere as at least the 11th case nationally centered on FERPA or PPRA concerns tied to transgender-student policies, while an earlier Albuquerque Journal report, also citing Education Week, put the nationwide total at the time at “at least 52” such investigations — figures that reflect different dates and scopes rather than one consistent count.
Other districts have faced similar federal action in recent months. Education Week reported the department announced an investigation of two Massachusetts school districts over allegations that a district facilitated a student’s gender transition without parents’ knowledge. The Justice Department separately sued the Kansas City, Kansas, school district on Sept. 1 over policies it alleged promoted student gender transitions without parental knowledge or consent, and the department’s Civil Rights Division announced a lawsuit against Anne Arundel County Public Schools in Maryland over what it called secret gender transitions and limits on parents’ access to student information, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Federal officials have said school districts found to have violated the law could face consequences tied to federal funding, though no determination has been made in the New Mexico cases, and neither investigation has produced findings. For now, Albuquerque Public Schools and Santa Fe Public Schools are left responding to a federal process that, by each district’s own account, is only just getting underway.
