The U.S. Department of Justice sued Anne Arundel County Public Schools in Maryland on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, alleging the school district secretly helped students change their name, pronouns and gender identity at school without telling their parents — and then blocked parents who tried to see the records. The lawsuit, filed by the department's Civil Rights Division in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, says the district's policies violate two federal laws that protect parents' rights over their children's education records.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Anne Arundel County Public Schools, known as AACPS, is one of Maryland's largest school systems. According to figures cited by Reuters, the district runs 128 schools serving more than 84,000 students in the county that includes the state capital, Annapolis, and communities stretching toward Baltimore and Washington. A ruling in this case would therefore affect tens of thousands of families, not a single school.
Source: Reuters
What the Justice Department alleges
The complaint alleges that AACPS directs staff to solicit, document and act upon a student's self-identified name, pronouns and gender identity without notifying parents. It says the district designates gender identity information as confidential and instructs staff to withhold it from parents on what the department calls the unilateral and unfounded assertion that informing parents would pose a safety concern to the student.
The department also alleges the district reports gender identity information to the Maryland State Department of Education without parental notice and without giving parents an opportunity to challenge its accuracy. The lawsuit enforces the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, known as FERPA, and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, known as PPRA. Under FERPA, parents may inspect and review their children's education records and ask for inaccurate information to be corrected or deleted. Under PPRA, parents have the right to give or withhold consent before schools collect sensitive personal information from minor students, the department said.
The Trump administration is seeking an injunction that would stop the board from enforcing its gender identity policy and give parents an opportunity to challenge and correct any errors in their children's educational records, according to the complaint reported by The Baltimore Banner.
One family's case at the centre of the complaint
The complaint includes allegations about one anonymous family's experience during the 2025-2026 school year. The Justice Department says AACPS questioned students one-on-one about their preferred names and pronouns. Jane and John Doe then twice received emails from teachers referring to their daughter by a male name and pronouns, according to the complaint summary. When the parents confronted the district, the department alleges AACPS denied helping their daughter present as male at school, later admitted to lying, but still declined to give details and refused to hand over the child's relevant education records.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
The Baltimore Banner's account of the complaint describes a similar family, identified there as Mary Doe: teachers and staff allegedly called the student by a name that did not match her legal name or sex and withheld that change from her parents, and when the parents tried to exercise their rights to the records, staff allegedly told them some records required an appointment and others a subpoena. Names in the filings are pseudonyms; no student is identified.
Source: The Baltimore Banner
What officials on each side said
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said: 'Schools should not discuss preferred pronouns or gender identity with a student without parental notification and consent. Parents should not be lied to, stonewalled, or branded as safety concerns when they ask to see the education records that reveal what schools are secretly doing to their children. This Department will end illegal school policies that keep parents in the dark.' Dhillon leads the Civil Rights Division that brought the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
The school district disagreed. In a statement on Tuesday evening, AACPS said it disagrees with the allegations and stands by its compliance with FERPA and PPRA, that it has been in regular contact with the Justice Department in a good-faith effort to resolve concerns, and that it found the decision to pursue litigation regrettable. 'Because the case is now before a federal court, AACPS will address the claims in its court filings and will have no further comment at this time,' the district said, in remarks reported by both Reuters and The Banner.
Source: Reuters
Background: the district had already changed its guidance
The lawsuit did not arrive without warning. Over the summer, the district's years-old approach drew intense scrutiny from the Trump administration, conservative legal activists and some parents, The Banner reported. The district previously did not require parental permission to use a high school student's chosen name and pronouns, an internal document cited by The Banner shows. At the start of this school year the district revised its guidance: it said a student's gender identity will not be treated as confidential medical information, and it notified staff they can no longer use a transgender student's preferred name if the parents oppose it.
Superintendent Mark Bedell wrote in an August letter to the community: 'No policy, guideline, or practice may limit or otherwise interfere with parental rights under FERPA. This includes any information maintained in education records that relates to gender identity, transgender status, sexual orientation, preferred name, or preferred pronouns.' District spokesperson Bob Mosier previously told The Banner that Anne Arundel was among Maryland's first school systems to develop a framework to support LGBTQIA+ students and that it works closely with their parents. The federal government says those changes did not go far enough; the district says it already complies with the law. That dispute is now for a federal judge to decide.
Source: The Baltimore Banner
Why this matters beyond one Maryland county
For Punjabi and other immigrant families across the United States, the case is a practical lesson in a right many parents do not know they have: under FERPA, a parent can ask to inspect their child's education records and can challenge information in them. The Justice Department says individuals may file FERPA and PPRA complaints with the U.S. Department of Education. The Education Department's Student Privacy Policy Office had earlier accused Anne Arundel of improperly classifying gender identity information as confidential medical information that cannot be shared with parents, and said it was partnering with the Justice Department on enforcement.
The filing also landed one week before Election Day in the U.S. midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress — timing The Banner noted in its report. The allegations in the complaint are allegations: the district denies violating FERPA or PPRA, and no court has ruled. What happens next is a court process in Maryland: AACPS will respond in formal filings, and a judge will decide whether the policy can continue, must change, or was lawful all along. Awaaz Punjab will follow the filings.