{"id":16017,"date":"2025-04-03T14:03:21","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T14:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=16017"},"modified":"2025-04-03T14:57:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T14:57:14","slug":"will-files-parental-rights-complaint-against-milwaukee-public-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=16017","title":{"rendered":"WILL Files Parental Rights Complaint Against Milwaukee Public Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This post originally appeared at <a href=\"https:\/\/will-law.org\/will-files-parental-rights-complaint-against-milwaukee-public-schools\/\">https:\/\/will-law.org\/will-files-parental-rights-complaint-against-milwaukee-public-schools\/<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"et_pb_section et_pb_section_0 et_section_regular\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_row et_pb_row_0\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_column et_pb_column_3_4 et_pb_column_0  et_pb_css_mix_blend_mode_passthrough\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_module et_pb_text et_pb_text_0  et_pb_text_align_left et_pb_bg_layout_light\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_text_inner\">\n<h4><em>Complaint seeks federal investigation into secret gender transition policy<\/em><\/h4>\n<p>The News: The Wisconsin Institute for Law &amp; Liberty (WILL), alongside Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and Parents Defending Education (PDE),\u00a0filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) and the U.S Department of Justice (DOJ) against the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) for its secret gender transition policy.<\/p>\n<p>MPS\u2019 current policy allows school staff to create a <a href=\"https:\/\/mps.milwaukee.k12.wi.us\/MPS-Public\/CSA\/GII\/Resources\/MPS-GenderInclusion.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u201cGender Support Plan\u201d and \u201cGender Communication Plan\u201d<\/a> for a minor student without notifying the parents, and then to hide those plans from the student\u2019s record to prevent the parents from accessing them. This policy directly violates the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA). To its credit, the Trump administration has prioritized enforcing these federal laws. Accordingly, our complaint urges DOE to open an investigation and obtain compliance with federal law, or, if necessary, rescind federal funding.<\/p>\n<p>The Quotes: WILL Deputy Counsel, Luke Berg, stated, \u201cParents have the right and solemn responsibility to raise their own children. Federal law recognizes the parental role, yet school districts around the country have been flouting parental rights. With a new administration that supports parents, we hope that these secret transition policies can be eliminated once and for all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">\u201cParents, not the government, have the right to direct the upbringing, education, and health care of their children,\u201d said ADF Senior Counsel Kate Anderson, director of the ADF Center for Parental Rights. \u201cYet Milwaukee Public Schools is deliberately hiding vital information from moms and dads. In keeping with President Trump\u2019s prioritization of parents\u2019 rights, we are urging the administration to eliminate secretive policies that harm children.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Nicole Neily, President &amp; Founder of Parents Defending Education, stated, \u201cOver the past several years, PDE has documented over 1200 districts (and counting) with parental exclusion policies that deliberately withhold gender identity information from families. For years, our tax dollars have been weaponized against us by school officials who undermined the parent-child relationship and interfered with our ability to direct the care and upbringing of loved ones\u2014all behind our backs. This is truly an insult to injury, and we ask that the Trump Administration take steps to address this egregious overreach in Wisconsin as it has in other states around the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>MPS is Violating the Law: The PPRA gives parents the right to prior notice and to opt their children out of certain surveys and evaluations. And FERPA gives parents the right to access their children\u2019s records. Yet the District\u2019s policy allows an adult staff member to sit alone with a minor student to fill out a questionnaire about their gender and their relationship with their parents, to create a plan for a secret transition at school, and then to hide that plan from the parents.<\/p>\n<p>Federal Funding Now in Jeopardy: President Trump\u2019s January 29 executive order entitled, \u201cEnding Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,\u201d directed the Department to develop a plan, within 90 days, to prioritize enforcement of parental rights, and, specifically, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ed.gov\/about\/news\/press-release\/us-department-of-education-directs-schools-comply-parental-rights-laws\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">FERPA and the PPRA<\/a>. Just recently, DOE announced investigations into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ed.gov\/about\/news\/press-release\/us-department-of-education-launches-investigation-california-department-of-education-alleged-ferpa-violations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">California<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ed.gov\/about\/news\/press-release\/us-department-of-education-launches-investigation-maine-department-of-education-alleged-ferpa-violations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Maine<\/a> schools on these grounds, and sent a <a href=\"https:\/\/studentprivacy.ed.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/resource_document\/file\/Secretary_Comb_SPPO_DCL_Annual%20Notice_0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dear Colleague Letter<\/a> about how these laws apply to gender transition policies.<\/p>\n<p>Consistent with those actions, we respectfully urge the Department to open an investigation into these plain violations of federal law and to revoke MPS\u2019 federal funding if MPS will not rescind these policies and stop hiding gender transitions at school from parents. We also ask the Department to require MPS to notify the parents of any child for whom MPS maintains a secret gender support plan without the parents\u2019 awareness.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/will-law.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/MPS-FERPA-and-PPRA-Complaint-04.02.2025.pdf\">Complaint<\/a>, April 2025<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"et_pb_column et_pb_column_1_4 et_pb_column_1  et_pb_css_mix_blend_mode_passthrough et-last-child\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_module et_pb_team_member et_pb_team_member_0 clearfix  et_pb_text_align_center et_pb_bg_layout_light\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_team_member_image et-waypoint et_pb_animation_off\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"617\" height=\"980\" src=\"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/WILL_Luke_Color_001_WEB_980x617_100ppi_Sharpened.jpg\" alt=\"Luke Berg\" class=\"wp-image-9283\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"et_pb_team_member_description\">\n<h4 class=\"et_pb_module_header\">Luke Berg<\/h4>\n<p class=\"et_pb_member_position\">Deputy Counsel<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Luke@will-law.org<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/will-law.org\/will-files-parental-rights-complaint-against-milwaukee-public-schools\/\">WILL Files Parental Rights Complaint Against Milwaukee Public Schools<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/will-law.org\">Wisconsin Institute for Law &amp; Liberty<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post originally appeared at https:\/\/will-law.org\/will-files-parental-rights-complaint-against-milwaukee-public-schools\/ Complaint seeks federal investigation into secret gender transition policy&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16017"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16019,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16017\/revisions\/16019"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}