Defending Ed Files Federal Privacy Complaint Against Seattle Public Schools for Gender-Secrecy Policies, Opt Out Restrictions, and Solicitation of Gender Affirming Supplies for Minors

On December 16, 2025, Defending Ed filed a civil rights complaint against Seattle Public Schools for violations of FERPA and the PPRA.

As far as the prevalence of gender identity in education is concerned, Seattle Public Schools (SPS) is among the nation’s worst offenders. Not only does SPS maintain an express policy of keeping the gender identity information of minor children from their own parents, and not only does the school system prevent parents from opting their children out of the kind of normative LGBTQ+ themed curriculum that the U.S. Supreme Court determined was a violation of parental religious liberty rights, but SPS goes even further.

Defending Education’s investigation has revealed that SPS administrators have solicited “gender-affirming supplies” such as chest binders, “trans tape,” nipple guards, and tucking underwear from Seattle Children’s Hospital for the district’s “Community Health Lockers” project geared toward facilitation of minor children’s gender identity transitions. Together, these SPS policies violate two critical privacy laws: the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”) and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (“PPRA”). They also run afoul of White House guidance on this issue of gender identity, including at least three executive orders.

For these reasons, we’ve asked the Student Privacy Policy Office at the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Justice to swiftly investigate SPS for these apparent violations of federal law.

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Read the full complaint below: