Feds ramp up threats to cut funds from KCK schools over rules for trans students
The U.S. Department of Education is banding together with the U.S. Department of Justice to jointly target Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools for the district’s rules involving transgender students, it announced Tuesday.
The federal agencies are threatening to take legal action and to revoke the local school district’s funding for refusing to address what they believe are violations of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
KCKPS has not complied with the education department’s April determination that the district — as well as two in Johnson County and one in Topeka — violated FERPA by allegedly not notifying all parents when their children express they want to use different pronouns or names at school, according to the department.
The department also asserts that KCKPS has refused to comply with a set of corrective action tactics for the alleged violation, which included prohibiting transgender students from joining school sports teams that correspond with their gender identity, limiting which bathrooms they can use, and having documentation about a student’s transition readily available for parents to view.
“SPPO’s investigation revealed clear evidence that District administrators positively reject their legal responsibility to honestly answer parents’ inquiries about their children’s health and well being,” according to the education department’s news release.
The department also alleged that KCKPS has a policy stating personnel “should not disclose information that may reveal a student’s transgender status or gender nonconforming presentation to others, including parents.”
Through it all, KCKPS and some district parents have maintained that the district, Wyandotte County’s largest, has followed state and federal laws as required. When the education department made its determination in April, KCKPS said it disagreed with those findings, adding they weren’t based in fact or law.
As of 11 a.m. Wednesday, KCKPS did not immediately respond to The Star’s request for comment.
The federal government’s announcement comes just days after state Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican also running for governor, separately called for an investigation into KCKPS after he saw videos alleging that the district was assisting students in transitioning genders and keeping that information from parents.
Feds policing schools
The justice and education departments announced earlier this month that they’d join forces to increase and fast-track how the federal government under President Donald Trump’s administration would enforce “parental and civil rights laws.”
“Thanks to this new partnership, the Department is working more closely than ever with DOJ to ensure schools are protecting children and respecting parental rights,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in the release.
The government views concealing information about a student’s gender identity, even to parents who may not be accepting of that information, as an interference with their rights as parents.
“Kansas City Kansas Public Schools’ sustained efforts to sidestep FERPA, conceal its true policies, and obstruct parents’ lawful access to their children’s education records represents a serious and deliberate reach of federal law,” said Frank Miller, director of the department’s Student Privacy Policy Office.
The Star’s Matthew Kelly contributed to the reporting of this story.
