Education Department and DOJ threatened Ann Arbor, Michigan schools with funding cutoff over transgender student privacy policy

On July 27, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education's Student Privacy Policy Office (SPPO) announced, in partnership with the Department of Justice, that it had determined Ann Arbor Public Schools' policy of directing employees to withhold a child's "transgender status" from parents without the student's consent likely violates the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). The department gave the Michigan district until August 10, 2026 to respond and demonstrate why ED and DOJ should not proceed with enforcement, and separately demanded the district justify a policy of keeping records related to a student's "gender identity" in a separate filing system or face "imminent enforcement action." FERPA violations can result in termination of an educational institution's federal funding.

The action was announced alongside a parallel enforcement action against Anne Arundel County Public Schools in Maryland over similar allegations. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in the joint press release that "FERPA is not optional, and any districts that attempt to bypass or distort its requirements should expect immediate federal action. In partnership with the Department of Education, the Department of Justice will initiate enforcement proceedings with districts that fail to comply." Education Secretary Linda McMahon called the districts' policies "an affront to basic moral principles."

Whether FERPA actually requires proactive disclosure of a student's gender identity to parents is contested. According to Chalkbeat reporting cited by Michigan Advance, a FERPA expert said the law requires districts to share existing written records, such as gender support plans, if parents request them, but does not create a standing duty to proactively disclose that a student is expressing a different gender at school. Ann Arbor's policy states staff "shall not disclose any information that may reveal a student's transgender status" to parents or other staff unless legally required or the student authorizes it, citing risks to students with unsupportive parents. A district spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Ann Arbor schools were already the subject of a separate Title IX investigation by the department over transgender students' participation in athletics and locker-room access.

This is the second such federal funding-threat enforcement action against a school district's transgender-student privacy policy in a week, following a nearly identical July 21, 2026 joint DOJ/ED letter threatening to sue Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools and freeze its federal funding.