The large majority of parents, including most Catholic parents, are against school policies that impose gender ideology by permitting biological males in girls’ spaces and hiding information about a child’s gender identity from his or her parents, according to a poll released this week.
A poll of 1,000 parents throughout the country, commissioned by the nonprofit group Parents Defending Education (PDE), found that more than three-fourths of parents across ideological and political lines oppose school policies that allow biological males who identify as transgender girls to participate in girls’ sports teams or access female bathrooms and locker rooms.
Nearly three-fourths of Catholic parents surveyed also oppose biological males on girls’ sports teams and nearly 60% oppose biological males using girls’ locker rooms and bathrooms, which was slightly lower than the general population polled.
The poll found that about three-fourths of parents oppose school policies that encourage or require teachers, counselors, school nurses, and coaches to hide a child’s gender identity information from parents in certain circumstances if their child begins to identify as transgender. This includes nearly three-fourths of Catholic parents.
Such policies often prevent officials from notifying parents about their child identifying as transgender without first obtaining express consent from the child.
According to the poll, about 90% of parents want schools to focus on core subjects such as math, reading, writing, science, and social studies. Slightly more than half of parents want to reduce the influence of the United States Department of Education and slightly less than half of parents believe the department is appropriately using resources to advance students’ education.
“These results highlight that parents are dissatisfied with a number of elements of the modern American education system — and that there is broad-based consensus that it’s time for schools to get back to basics,” PDE President Nicole Neily, a Catholic mother of two school-age children, said in a statement.
“For far too long, federal bureaucrats have sacrificed the needs of students and families in order to appease unions’ and activists’ insatiable demands for money and power,” Neily added.
Disconnect between politicians, school officials, and parents
The poll found bipartisan opposition to schools enforcing gender ideology through these policies among parents. Yet, unity among parents has not led to bipartisan agreement within the federal government, state governments, or local school boards.
According to the poll, 86% of Republican parents, 80% of politically independent parents, and 60% of Democratic parents oppose biological males in girls’ sports. It also found that 92% of Republicans, 75% of independents, and 58% of Democrats oppose biological males being permitted in female bathrooms and locker rooms.
About 88% of Republican parents, 72% of independent parents, and 58% of Democratic parents are also opposed to school policies that encourage or require teachers, nurses, coaches, and other school officials to hide information from parents if their child self-identifies with a gender that is inconsistent with his or her biological sex.
Despite bipartisan agreement among parents, about half of the states in the country permit biological males to participate in girls’ athletic competitions and to access female locker rooms, bathrooms, dormitories, and other private spaces when those males self-identify as transgender girls. These policies exist in states run by mostly Democratic lawmakers.
As of Oct. 30, 2024, PDE also found at least 1,143 school districts — which operate nearly 21,000 schools and serve more than 12.2 million children — have policies that encourage or require school officials to hide information from parents in certain circumstances if their child begins to identify as a gender inconsistent with his or her sex.
The list is incomplete, but the PDE encourages parents to report those policies to their organization for schools missing from the list.
In April 2023, California became the first state to impose a law that forces teachers and other school officials to hide a child’s self-described transgender identity from parents in certain circumstances, which has prompted lawsuits challenging the policy.
At the federal level, President Joe Biden’s Education Department revised Title IX regulations to redefine sex discrimination to apply to a person’s self-asserted “gender identity” in schools, colleges, and other educational institutions. The enforcement of this policy has been blocked by judges for 26 states after Republican state officials filed lawsuits warning that the language would overrule their policies that separate athletics, bathrooms, and locker rooms on the basis of biological sex.
Neily told CNA that school districts often impose the policy of hiding information from parents “under the guise of safety” when officials believe the parents will not support a child’s self-asserted transgender identity.
However, Neily said, school employees are already mandatory reporters and are obligated to notify Child Protective Services (CPS) if they believe a child is in danger, which can then be investigated by CPS. The policy of hiding information from parents, she said, allows school officials to make a “unilateral decision” that parents are unsafe. She expressed concern about “those kinds of snap judgments.”
One reason for the disconnect between officials and parents, according to Neily, is that “many parents aren’t aware that these policies are in place” and some parents do not “have the time or the bandwidth or the wherewithal to even know to ask these kinds of questions.”
Neily expressed optimism that the incoming President-elect Donald Trump administration can reverse the Biden-era policies at the federal level and recognize that “families and parents are stakeholders” rather than simply considering “activists and teacher’s unions.”
Trump has promised to take executive action on Day 1 to stop what he calls “transgender lunacy.”
