A handful of California school districts helped hundreds of students change their so-called “gender identity” on official records, documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation show.
Across six districts serving nearly 158,000 total students that provided data from the 2023-2024 school year, more than 300 children were placed on “gender support plans” or had their names or pronouns modified in school systems, according to records requests submitted by the Interfaith Statewide Coalition, a group of parents and faith leaders defending parental rights.
Sarah Do, an Interfaith Statewide Coalition board member and refugee from Vietnam, told the DCNF she is “appalled at the deception coming from our public schools.”
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“They are exploiting the trust of immigrant families by teaching children gender ideologies that contradict our family and cultural values,” Do told the DCNF. “Interfaith leaders are uniting to expose these secret gender changes going on behind parents’ backs through our schools. Some districts have been transparent to respond to our public record requests, others refuse transparency to the very taxpayers funding public education.”
It’s unclear whether parents were notified of the changes because most districts did not directly disclose this information, but several have policies against informing parents.
The Trump administration launched an investigation into California’s Department of Education in March over a law Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in 2024 that prohibits schools from requiring teachers and staff to notify parents when their child is identifying as transgender. The Department of Education (ED) alleged the law, which took effect on Jan. 1, violates the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act (FERPA).
In the Santa Ana Unified School District, public records data shows there have been 260 instances of students in grades 4-12 changing their names due to their gender identity since 2017. Last year, the district provided name changes for 51 students.
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Naye Morales, who was a parent volunteer in Santa Ana schools for 9 years, pulled her kids out after finding out what they were “doing behind parents’ backs” — including stocking the libraries with “sexually explicit” books and implementing a policy in 2023 that keeps students’ gender identity hidden from parents.
The district is facing major layoffs, passing a plan in January to eliminate nearly 300 employees, according to NBC Los Angeles. “A big reason for that is decreased enrollment,” Morales said.
Andrea Tapia, whose daughter will be returning to high school in the Santa Ana district in the fall, told the DCNF the numbers make her wonder whether parents were aware when their child’s name was changed.
“I would want the opportunity to speak to my Child before having a teacher or a staff member at school change their identity,” Tapia said. “I would want to remind them that they are made in the image of God. They are made with a purpose and that they are perfect just the way they are.”
The Interfaith Statewide Coalition put up an ad in the district informing parents of the number.
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In another Southern California district, more than a third of students with documented requests to change their gender had special needs, data shared with the DCNF shows.
During the 2023-2024 school year, 78 students in the Capistrano Unified School District requested gender changes, according to a public records request. Thirty of those students also had an Individualized Education Program (IEP), which accommodate students with special needs.
Capistrano was the only district to supply the Interfaith Statewide Coalition with the number of students on IEP’s who requested gender changes, Brenda Lebsack, coalition founder and Santa Ana Unified School District board member, told the DCNF.
The number of students on IEPs is “very significant,” Lebsack told the DCNF, highlighting a 2020 study that revealed transgender-identifying individuals were three to six times more likely to be autistic than those who do not identify as transgender.
Lebsack, also a special education teacher, suggested helping kids change their gender without parental knowledge could be a violation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which promises parents’ access to their child’s records upon request and requires parental consent for services.
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“In the Procedural Safeguards given to parents at IEP meetings, they are told that their child will not have any services without written parent consent. This includes ‘related services’ such as counseling,” she told the DCNF. “But that is no longer the case, since schools now offer gender affirming services such as counseling.”
A total of 194 students have requested gender changes in the Capistrano district since 2017. The youngest child who requested a gender change was in preschool and had an IEP, data shows.
The Anaheim Union High School District implemented gender support plans for the first time during the 2023-2024 school year, when 53 plans were created for students, according to district data.
In the Moreno Valley Unified School District, 19 students identify as nonbinary and 356 students have a preferred pronoun listed in the district’s database, per records released in August 2024. Interim communications director Alex Sponheim told the DCNF that the district continues to follow the recent law preventing disclosure of student information related to gender identity to parents.
“The District does not maintain records that track the creation and implementation of Gender Identity/Support Plans,” Sponheim said.
In the Tustin Unified School District, 40 students requested to change their name in the 2023-2024 school year, which the district notes is for “a number of reasons including those related to gender, nicknames, change of legal name,” records show. The district did not respond to the DCNF’s request to clarify how many of these changes were directly related to gender identity.
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In the Riverside Unified School District, there are 29 students who identify as “non-binary,” according to records requests.
“The District’s database does not indicate if a student is transgender or whether the student has a Gender Identity/Support Plan,” the response states.
During the 2023-2024 school year, 14 students in the Los Alamitos Unified School District requested a change of name, pronouns or gender identity. The district said lists of gender support plans “simply do not exist” and individual student plans are exempt from disclosure, per records requests.
Fourteen elementary school students and 96 secondary school students received Gender Support Plans during the 2022-2023 school year in the Irvine Unified School District, per records data from 2023.
In the Fullerton Joint Union High School District, 106 students requested to change their name in the 2023-2024 school year, which the district notes could include changes for reasons other than gender identity. Gender support plans were created for two students that same year and for one student during the 2022-2023 school year.
“Of the three support plans we have on record, all have included communication with parents,” Assistant Superintendent Karl Zener wrote in an August 2024 response to the Interfaith Statewide Coalition.
While some districts offered data, several that received requests from the Interstate Faith Coalition declined to provide numbers or said they did not keep track of gender support plans.
The Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District offers Gender Support Plans for its students without requiring parental knowledge. Guidance tells students they have a right to be referred to by their “authentic name and pronoun” and use the bathroom that corresponds to their “gender identity.” The district did not provide the number of plans it created in response to a public records request and did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
Not every district has accepted state requirements to cut parents out of the loop. The Chino Valley Unified School District filed a federal lawsuit against the state in July 2024, alleging California’s new law prohibiting parental notification violates FERPA, as well as the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
