The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has launched investigations into 36 Illinois public school districts to determine whether they have included sexual orientation and gender ideology content in classes for grades pre-K through 12 and whether parents have been properly notified of their rights.
The investigations will examine whether the school districts have notified parents of their right to opt their children out of such instruction. They will also assess whether the districts limit access to single-sex intimate spaces, such as bathrooms and locker rooms, and girls’ sports teams based on biological sex.
“This Department of Justice is determined to put an end to local school authorities keeping parents in the dark about how sexuality and gender ideology are being pushed in classrooms,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Supreme Court precedent leaves no doubt: parents have the fundamental right and primary authority to direct the care, upbringing, and education of their children. This includes exempting their children from ideological instruction that contradicts their values or decisions about their children’s health and best interests.”
The investigations will examine whether the school districts, which receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal taxpayer funding, are adhering to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and Supreme Court precedents on parental rights, as recently addressed in Mirabelli v. Bonta and Mahmoud v. Taylor.
The Civil Rights Division noted it has not reached any conclusions about the subject matter of the investigations.
By DNU staff