Chatham School District Ends Secret Gender Identity Policy
The Chatham School District in New Jersey voted Monday to rescind a policy that allowed counselors to keep parents unaware of students’ gender identities. The district announced the decision after a lawsuit challenged its authority.
In 2024 the district ruled that counselors could decide how much to involve parents after a student requested a different gender. The policy was meant to give staff discretion in communicating gender identity changes.
Moms For Liberty and the Thomas More Society sued, saying the policy violated parents’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. They argued the rule infringed on parental rights.
“No school has the authority to transition a child behind his or her parents’ backs, and the Supreme Court made that unmistakably clear,” Christopher Ferrara, senior counsel at the Thomas More Society, said. Ferrara said the district’s approach ignored constitutional protections.
The Thomas More Society cited two recent Supreme Court cases in a letter to the district, demanding the policy’s repeal. The letter referenced rulings that limit school overreach in parental matters.
School board President Ann Ciccarelli argued that one of those cases did not apply to New Jersey schools. She said the district’s policy was legally distinct from the precedent.
“This board told New Jersey parents the ruling didn’t apply to them, kept its secret transition policy on the books, and forced families to go to federal court to protect their own children,” Ferrara said. He called the board’s stance a defiance of the law of the land.
The Chathams Board of Education had every opportunity to fix this policy. Instead, its own president stood up at a public meeting and told parents that Supreme Court precedent simply doesn’t apply to them. That is not a legal argument; it is defiance of the law of the land, he added.
Moms For Liberty asked the court to declare the policy unconstitutional and to block its enforcement until it required parental notice and consent before a student could adopt a new name, pronouns, or any activity based on a newly asserted gender identity. The group said the settlement would set a clear standard for parental involvement.
The board voted unanimously on October 15 to settle the suit, agreeing never to adopt a similar policy in the future. The settlement includes a written commitment for staff to respect parents’ rights.
“Now that the policy is gone for good, every teacher and counselor in the district will receive a copy of the board’s written commitment to respect parents’ rights,” Ferrara said. He warned other districts that hiding gender transitions from parents could lead to federal court challenges.
