Attorneys representing a southern California school district have declared victory in the fight with California state officials over the rights of parents to know if their minor children are transitioning their gender, after California Attorney General Rob Bonta did not appeal a lower court's ruling that handed the parents and school district a key win.
On Feb. 19, attorneys from the Liberty Justice Center announced the legal deadline by which Bonta could have filed his appeal had passed. They said this means the case is now closed and the Chino Valley Unified School District will be able to enforce its policy requiring parents be notified any time a child requests changes to their official or unofficial school records.
Under the ruling that will now stand, however, the school district would remain barred from enacting policies that would force teachers or other school staff to inform parents when they see or hear evidence that a student may be questioning their gender identity or asking others to identify them as a gender that differs from their biological sex.
The case had raged in San Bernardino County Superior Court since 2023, when Bonta's office brought legal action against the Chino Valley school district over the district's then-new parental notification policy.
The Chino district's school board had voted 4-1 in 2023 to establish the new compulsory parental notification policy. Under that policy, teachers and school staff would be required to notify parents if they had reason to believe a student may be attempting to transition, such as by asking other students to identify them by a different name or pronouns other than those that would traditionally correspond in the English language to the student's biological sex.
In challenging the Chino policies, Bonta alleged the policies were discriminatory and violated the constitutional rights of students.
In response, the school district, represented by the Liberty Justice Center, instead argued the policy was intended to reinforce the fundamental rights of parents to be informed about their children's health and education and to direct their children's upbringing.
In 2023, San Bernardino County Judge Michael Sachs mostly sided with Bonta and California state officials. He initially entered an injunction in 2023 blocking the Chino district from enforcing the policy while the lawsuit continued.
However, while continuing to block that portion of the policy, Sachs agreed with the Chino district and parents that the school district could enforce the portion of the policy requiring school administrators to notify parents about changes to student records.
"Children should generally not expect that school staff will keep secrets in general, keep requests made to them secret from parents, or keep secret from parents public (at school) information about a child given the fundamental rights of parents...," Sachs wrote in the ruling in 2024.
Neither side appealed that ruling, leaving in place an enforceable policy requiring parents to be notified of changes to their children's official and unofficial school records, inlcuidng concerning student gender identity, preferred pronouns and other considerations related to gender transitions, regardless of students' or educators' desires to keep such information from parents.
“We are proud to have defended Chino Valley’s parental notification policy, and look forward to continuing our ever-expanding legal battle for Californian families’ rights,” said attorney Emily Rae, senior counsel at the Liberty Justice Center, who helped lead the legal fight on behalf of the Chino district.