California parental notification policy for gender changes heading to court in landmark case

In a case that could determine the future of parental notification policies for gender changes across California, the Chino Valley School District will be facing off in court against the state Department of Justice during an Oct.  13 hearing for a full preliminary injunction against the school district’s new policy.

Chino Valley’s parental notification policy requires faculty to write parents within three days if a student is involved in violence, talks about suicide, or requests to identify with or participate in programs or use school facilities that are for a gender different from what is on their birth certificate or official records.

Five other schools have adopted similar parental notification policies, and are largely based on AB 1314, a California Assembly measure proposed by Assemblymember Bill Essayli, R-Woodcrest, which failed to earn consideration in a committee.

The State of California contends the measure violates the state Constitution’s equal protections clause by singling out gender-nonconforming students for unequal treatment, violates state education and government codes requiring equal rights and opportunities to all students, and violate the state Constitution’s right to privacy for “outing” gender-nonconforming students.

The Liberty Justice Center, which announced on September 11 that it would be representing Chino Valley in this case, suggested the state’s lawsuit is part of an effort to reduce local control and parents’ rights.

““I can’t believe we’re at a point in America where authoritarians in power are fighting this hard to keep sexual secrets about children from their own parents,” said Liberty Justice Center Board Member and school choice advocate Corey DeAngelis. “They are now using the heavy hand of the state to subvert local control and try to strip away the most fundamental parental rights.

A total of six California schools have adopted gender-change related parental notification policies, including the most recent addition of Orange Unified.

Liberty Justice Center, a liberty-oriented nonprofit, is best known for its 2018 U.S. Supreme Court victory in Janus v. AFSCME, in which the court ruled non-union government workers cannot be required to pay union fees.