VICTORY! U.S. DOE Makes Formal Finding That New Jersey School District Violated Parental Rights

he Following is from America First Legal

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On July 26, 2024, America First Legal (AFL) secured an important victory for the parents of Cedar Grove, New Jersey, when the U.S. Department of Education decided that the Cedar Grove School District violated the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA). According to the Department, the district violated the law by failing to provide parents with lawful prior notice of and a meaningful opportunity to opt their children out of the District’s “equity” and “diversity” surveys. 

The PPRA is an important federal law that protects public school parents and children by guaranteeing parents the right to review the curriculum used to teach their children at school and to have prior notice of and a meaningful right to opt out of intrusive and biased surveys and studies of their children. Among other things, the PPRA prevents public schools from collecting information about political affiliations, beliefs, the sex behavior or attitudes, and “critical appraisals of other individuals with whom respondents have close family relationships” (i.e. anything related to “white privilege” or “anti-racism”) of a student or her family. 

The PPRA’s regulations also address “socio-emotional learning” activities, covering any method of obtaining information, including a group activity, that is not directly related to academic instruction and that is designed to elicit information about attitudes, habits, traits, opinions, beliefs or feelings, and any activity involving the planned, systematic use of methods or techniques that are not directly related to academic instruction and that are designed to affect behavioral, emotional, or attitudinal characteristics of an individual or group. 

In 2021, six parents filed PPRA complaints with the U.S. Department of Education challenging the Cedar Grove School District’s failure to provide prior notice and obtain parental consent before administering intrusive surveys. These “surveys” included questions about same-sex unions, religious affiliation, gender identity, and race/ethnicity, asking whether school is “a safe place” for the student’s “race/ethnic group,” whether “adults in your school are fair in dealing with your particular racial/ethnic group,” and whether “adults in your school are fair in dealing with people not in your particular racial/ethnic group.”

The Department sat on these complaints for over a year. Then, AFL intervened with a demand letter and multiple Freedom of Information Act requests. Two months later, the Department finally opened an investigation. After additional months of delay, AFL sued the Biden Administration, arguing that the government’s failure to investigate, process, review, and adjudicate the parents’ complaints in a lawfully timely fashion nullified the parents’ PPRA rights.

On July 26, 2024, the Department of Education finally issued its findings, concluding that the school district had violated the law.

Interestingly, the Department refused to determine whether questions about “gender identity” trigger parental rights under the PPRA. 

Nevertheless, citing New Jersey law, the Department prohibited the District from asking “similar questions” in future surveys without prior written parental consent.

The Department’s decision is an important first step, but only the first step, in the battle to protect parents’ rights to know what woke public school bureaucrats are doing to our children. AFL will continue fighting relentlessly for parents and for the rule of law. 

Statements of Ian Prior, America First Legal Senior Advisor:

“We are proud to stand with the brave and determined parents of Cedar Grove School District to spur a reluctant Department of Education to investigate Cedar Grove’s blatant violation of the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment. The investigation made clear what we have known for over two years — Cedar Grove violated federal law by administering surveys to children on sensitive topics without providing parents with the ability to opt their children out of those surveys. The Department of Education also made clear that Cedar Grove cannot distribute to students surveys asking about gender identity without providing parental opt-out notification. We look forward to continuing to fight for parents across America who demand a seat at the table when it comes to their children’s education,” said Ian Prior.

Read the letter here.

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