Burlington Public Schools provides middle school students with sexually explicit survey despite parents opting them out

  • Burlington Public Schools - Massachusetts

Incidents

Issues

In March 2025, parents at Burlington Public Schools were informed that their middle school students were provided with a sexually explicit survey despite being opted out. The parental rights organization Massachusetts Informed Parents explained that the following questions were included in the survey:

  • Which of the following best describes your sexual orientation?
  • Which of the following terms best describes your current gender identity?
  • Sexual intercourse includes vaginal sex which is when a penis goes inside of a vagina, oral sex which is contact between the mouth and genitals, anal sex which is when the penis goes inside an anus (butt), and use of toys or props (vaginal or anal). Have you ever had sexual intercourse?

The group explained that providing this survey to students despite parents opting them out “violated their parental rights” and “violated the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA), a federal law protecting students from being surveyed on sensitive topics without parental consent.” The group also explained that the Massachusetts Liberty Legal Center (MLLC) has stepped in on behalf of parents:

Tuesday, MLLC attorney Sam Whiting sent a formal legal letter to the BPS superintendent and school committee, outlining the PPRA violations and demanding corrective action. MLLC also submitted multiple formal PPRA complaints to the U.S. Department of Education’s Student Privacy Policy Office on behalf of parents whose children were subjected to the survey in direct violation of their opt-out requests.

In a following School Committee meeting, committee members “unanimously voted to suspend all student surveys until a new policy is adopted and also voted to remove all funding for JSI, the survey provider, from the upcoming budget.”

These survey questions were provided to students.
4_8_2025_Letter_To_Burlington_School_CommitteeDownload

In a following report on the issue, Massachusetts Informed Parents explained that the district’s superintendent did send out a statement explaining that the district made an error. However, the district is charging the Massachusetts Family Institute $875 for seeking communications concerning the survey from district staff. The group has appealed the district’s response to charge this much for a public records request.