Public schools in California will no longer be able to prohibit teachers from telling parents if their children identify as a different gender from their biological sex after a federal judge ruled that policies preventing such disclosures violate parents’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. 

A federal district court judge, Roger Benitez, has granted summary judgment to a group of parents and educators who challenged California’s so-called parental exclusion policies, which prevent teachers from notifying parents if their children start to identify as a different gender.

Judge Benitez, a President Bush appointee, said in his decision, “Parental involvement is essential to the healthy maturation of schoolchildren.”

“California’s public school system parental exclusion policies place a communication barrier between parents and teachers … The state defendants are, in essence, asking this court to limit, and restrict a common-sense and legally sound description by the United States Supreme Court of parental rights. That, this court will not do,” he wrote.

The jurist issued a permanent injunction blocking the enforcement of parental exclusion, or similar, policies. 

Attorneys for California argued that the policy of preventing teachers from disclosing a child’s gender identity protects children from parents who do not affirm their gender identity. 

Judge Benitez said that California’s attempt at protecting “vulnerable children from harassment and discrimination is laudable,” but that the parental exclusion policies “create a trifecta of harm.”

“They harm the child who needs parental guidance and possibly mental health intervention to determine if the incongruence is organic or whether it is the result of bullying, peer pressure, or a fleeting impulse,” he said.

Judge Benitez also said that the policies harm parents “by depriving them of the long-recognized Fourteenth Amendment right to care, guide, and make health care decisions for their children, and by substantially burdening many parents’ First Amendment right to train their children in their sincerely held religious beliefs.”

The third group injured by the policies, according to Judge Benitez, includes teachers who are “compelled to violate the sincerely held beliefs and the parents’ rights by forcing them to conceal information they feel is critical for the welfare of their students.”

The lawsuit was filed by a conservative legal firm, the Thomas More Society. A special counsel at the law firm, Paul M. Jonna, said in a statement, “Today’s incredible victory finally, and permanently, ends California’s dangerous and unconstitutional regime of gender secrecy policies in schools.”

“The Court’s comprehensive ruling — granting summary judgment on all claims — protects all California parents, students, and teachers, and it restores sanity and common sense. With this decisive ruling from Judge Benitez, all state and local school officials that mandate gender secrecy policies should cease all enforcement or face severe legal consequences,” Mr. Jonna said. 

Shortly after the decision, California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, asked the judge to stay his decision pending an appeal, citing “serious questions going to the merits of the unprecedented and sweeping constitutional relief” offered in the ruling. 

A spokesman for the attorney general’s office said, “We are committed to securing school environments that allow transgender students to safely participate as their authentic selves while recognizing the important role that parents play in students’ lives.”

Last year, California became the first state to ban school districts from informing parents if their children change their gender identity. Many school districts have implemented similar policies in the absence of a state law.

Some courts have upheld similar policies in other states. In 2024, the New Hampshire Supreme Court upheld a school district’s policy that prevents teachers from telling parents about their child’s gender identity.

Six states have laws that require school employees to notify parents if their child starts identifying as a different gender.