Justice Department opens probe into SFUSD over parental notifications, gender policies

Federal investigators have put San Francisco Unified School District back at the center of a national fight over what parents are told, what students are taught, and how schools handle gender identity in classrooms and bathrooms. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division opened a compliance review on Monday, June 8, into SFUSD and three other California districts, setting off another round of scrutiny for a system already under pressure from families, teachers, and city leaders.

The review will examine instruction on sexual orientation and gender ideology in grades pre-K through 12, whether districts notified parents of their right to opt children out of that instruction, and whether bathroom, locker room, and girls’ sports policies are aligned with gender identity rather than biological sex. In announcing the probe, Harmeet K. Dhillon said districts should not keep parents “in the dark” about classroom instruction on sexuality and gender ideology. SFUSD did not comment on the announcement.

The timing is especially sharp for San Francisco. Superintendent Maria Su is scheduled to testify Wednesday, June 10, at 10:15 a.m. before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce in Rayburn Office Building room 2175 in Washington, D.C. The hearing, titled “Breaking Trust: Attacks on Parental Rights, Inappropriate Content, and Legal Abuses in America’s Schools,” will also feature superintendents from Chicago Public Schools and Loudoun County, Virginia. For SFUSD, that means the district’s policies are being tested in two arenas at once: federal civil rights review and congressional theater.

The district’s own LGBTQ-student-rights materials say SFUSD must provide LGBTQ-inclusive social studies, history, and comprehensive sexual health education. State law gives parents a passive opt-out right for comprehensive sexual-health education and HIV-prevention education under California Education Code section 51938. SFUSD’s transgender-related guidance says students may use facilities consistent with gender identity, with privacy accommodations available on request. The Justice Department said it will also look at whether families were told they could opt out of the instruction now under review.

The probe lands in a district that has already spent years fighting over curriculum and governance. In June 2025, SFUSD paused its homegrown ethnic-studies course and switched to an interim curriculum while it reviewed materials after parent backlash. The district first introduced ethnic studies in 2010, making it one of the earliest in the country to do so. The stakes rose again after the Supreme Court’s June 27, 2025, decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, which found parents were entitled to a preliminary injunction over LGBTQ-themed instruction and the lack of an opt-out opportunity.

Su has recently tried to steer the district back toward core academics, saying SFUSD’s priorities are third-grade literacy, eighth-grade math, and college and career readiness. The federal review now threatens to pull the district deeper into a politically charged fight that could shape classroom practice, parent communication, and trust in one of San Francisco’s most closely watched public institutions.