Kobach urges feds to investigate KS schools for illegal 'social transition' policies

TOPEKA – (June 24, 2025) –Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach is asking the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to investigate four Kansas school districts for suspected failure to comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA.

In a letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, Kobach writes that Kansas City USD 500, Olathe USD 223, Shawnee Mission USD 512, and Topeka USD 501 have policies that allow or require teachers to conceal from parents information concerning the “social transitioning” of their children.

“That a Kansas school district would so cavalierly act to hide such information from parents is shockingly irresponsible,” Kobach said.

In addition to the policies that allow districts to hide information from parents, three of the districts -- Kansas City, Shawnee Mission, and Topeka -- maintain policies that force students to share bathrooms, locker rooms, and other intimate spaces based on a student’s proclaimed gender identity.

Kobach’s letter comes on the heels of a Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies complaint filed on June 24 which requested an investigation into the same four Kansas school districts for their policies that actively undermine parental rights.

In December of 2023, Kobach sent letters to six Kansas school boards urging them to reconsider such policies. Two districts revised or rescinded their policies. The other four – KCK, Olathe, Shawnee Mission, and Topeka – refused.

“I respectfully urge your department to review the harmful and illegal district policies described in DFI’s letter and open an investigation of these school districts’ failure to comply with FERPA and Title IX by concealing critical information from parents about their children’s psychological and emotional health and requiring students to share sex-separated intimate spaces with individuals of the opposite sex,” the letter reads.

Read Kobach’s letter to Secretary McMahon here.