A new legal battle is brewing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin—one that strikes at the very heart of parental authority and the transparency expected from public education systems. Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) is under fire for a policy that, according to a formal complaint, encourages school staff to conceal students’ gender transitions from their own parents.
At the center of the storm is MPS’s “Gender Inclusion Guidance,” a district policy instructing educators to treat a student’s gender identity as confidential, effectively shielding this information from families unless the student gives explicit consent. The forms used under this guidance ask educators to assess whether a child’s parents are “aware and supportive.” If the answer is no, the form then prompts staff to decide how to proceed with communication between the school and home—often resulting in strategic silence.
Now, several prominent organizations—Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), and Parents Defending Education (PDE)—have filed a formal complaint to federal authorities. Their argument? That this policy isn’t just bad judgment—it’s illegal. They assert that the district’s practices violate federal protections under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA), both of which guarantee parents access to their child’s educational information and decisions.
In response, these groups are urging Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Attorney General Pam Bondi to take decisive action. Their demands include launching a federal investigation, requiring parental notification for all secret gender support plans, and ultimately threatening to revoke federal funding unless MPS aligns its policies with federal law. The push comes on the heels of President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting “radical indoctrination” in K–12 schooling, which signals a broader shift toward reasserting parental control in education.
“Some in the medical profession feel the best way to handle it is to say, “You’re right. You are in the wrong body, and you need to be fixed.” Wisconsin Pediatrician Paul Young dismantles gender medicine in three minutes. pic.twitter.com/exufDxN3pB
— Sidewalk Steve (@Sidewalk_Steve) March 17, 2025
ADF senior counsel Kate Anderson highlighted the emotional toll these policies place on children, emphasizing that young people grappling with identity questions need the guidance of their families—not isolation from them. “Kids need their parents,” Anderson told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “There’s a lot of litigation on it because it’s really hurting kids.”
This isn’t an isolated incident. The U.S. Department of Education has already opened similar investigations in California and Maine, where statewide policies also bypass parental notification regarding a child’s gender identity. A series of lawsuits have popped up from Michigan to New York, driven by growing concerns that schools are crafting their own rules around gender identity without community consensus or legal grounding.
Legal precedent on the matter remains murky. In February, the First Circuit Court of Appeals sided with a Massachusetts school district, arguing that “parental rights are not unlimited.” And just a month before that, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a similar Wisconsin case, leaving questions about the constitutional reach of parental rights unresolved—for now.
But the legal complaint against MPS drives home a clear message: A growing number of Americans want to restore the rights of parents as primary decision-makers in their children’s lives. With support from a new administration and a potentially shifting legal tide, these groups are determined to dismantle policies that, in their view, undermine the family and bypass the law.
AB103 would require parental consent for students to change their gender identity, names, and pronouns. It takes immense courage to stand up to the TRAs usurping parental rights in our schools. We applaud @RepDittrich for introducing AB103 pic.twitter.com/6iRbE2NkkN
— Gays Against Groomers Wisconsin (@GAG_Wisconsin) March 20, 2025
As WILL Deputy Counsel Luke Berg put it, “Parents have the right and solemn responsibility to raise their own children… Yet school districts around the country have been flouting parental rights. With a new administration that supports parents, we hope these secret transition policies can be eliminated once and for all.”
