CA Education Dept Claims School District Violated State Code With Parent Notification Policy

California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond speaks at the State Capitol against California school districts’ parental notification policy for transgender students in Sacramento, Calif., on Aug. 29, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The California Department of Education claims a school district in the Sacramento area violated state education code when it passed a policy requiring parents to be notified if their child identifies as transgender.

The state department sent a letter to the Rocklin Unified School District on Feb. 1 alleging that its policy, passed in September, “on its face fails to comply with [California education code] prohibitions against discrimination.”

The state education department launched an investigation into the policy after a district teacher filed a complaint with the state—alleging the policy discriminated based on gender identity and expression—the day after the policy was approved.

The department’s letter alleged it found the policy in violation of state Education Code Sections 200 and 220, which ban discrimination on the basis of “disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic that is contained in the definition of hate crimes ... including immigration status” in any public education institution, or any educational institution that accepts state financial aid.

“The [department] finds the district’s policy ... singles out and is directed exclusively toward one group of students based on that group’s legally protected characteristics of identifying with or expressing a gender other than that identified at birth,” the department wrote in the letter. “And the application of that policy adversely impacts those students. Finally, [the policy] does not expressly or implicitly provide any educational or school administrative purpose justifying either form of discrimination.”

In the letter, the education department gave the district’s superintendent, Roger Stock, five days from the letter’s date to inform all staff and students in writing that the notification policy is inconsistent with the education code and therefore will no longer be implemented. It also gave Mr. Stock 10 days to provide those letters to the CDE.

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A district spokesperson told The Epoch Times that the district is “reviewing” the letter.

However, the spokesperson also said that the district had not yet implemented the new policy until negotiations with its teachers’ union have been completed, since its agreement with the union requires both parties to negotiate when the district makes a change that affects the unionized teachers.

At a Feb. 7 board meeting, the district’s trustees also voted 4–1 to direct the superintendent to file a request for reconsideration with the state education department.