Fifty-seven school districts across the state have parental-exclusion policies on the books.
In Lewiston Public Schools in central Maine, district policy directs staff members to comply with the wishes of students who are changing their names and pronouns, and who want to keep their parents in the dark about their gender transition.
And if a student’s parents do find out and don’t approve of the school aiding in their child’s social transition, “the school shall abide by the wishes of the student with regard to their gender identity and gender expression,” the district’s policy states.
To the north, the coastal Camden Rockport school district offers transgender students individualized support plans that include directions on how to respond if a staff member “accidentally ‘slips’” and informs a parent about their child’s in-school transition.
In Gorham, west of Portland, the school district’s “Transgender Guidelines” state that staff members are “under no obligation” to inform a student’s parents about their child’s in-school gender transition, though parents will be alerted “if there is a safety concern.”
These are just three examples of alleged parental-exclusion policies that exist in at least 57 Maine school districts, according to new reporting from Parents Defending Education, a nonprofit that fights classroom indoctrination and activist-driven agendas in U.S. schools.
The nonprofit collected the transgender policies and plans as part of a records request to school districts and administrative units across the state.
While Maine officials say the policies and plans are part of an effort to stand up for the human rights of gender-nonconforming students, Parents Defending Education leaders say the policies keep critical medical and social information from parents.
Erika Sanzi, the nonprofit’s outreach director, told National Review that the policies they uncovered are part of a coordinated effort to deliberately deceive parents.
“Trans activists … tell you that there’s a huge increased risk of suicide for people that are trans. Well, how are you going to tell me that, in one breath, what you think my child is going through has drastically increased their risk for suicide, and in the same breath you’re going to say, you’re not going to tell me,” she said. “That is not defensible or coherent in any way.”
Some Maine school districts didn’t respond to the records requests, so Sanzi said there are likely more districts with similar parental-exclusion policies. The aim of the project, she said, was to inform centrist voters about just how widespread these types of policies and directives are in schools across Maine, and not just in the bluest cities.
Parents Defending Education’s reporting comes as Maine has become a focal point in the ongoing national debate about transgender issues in schools.
Last month, President Donald Trump and Maine Governor Janet Mills, a Democrat, sparred over her state’s refusal to abide by his executive order barring men from competing in women’s sports. Trump vowed to withhold federal funding if Maine doesn’t comply with the order. “See you in court,” Mills replied during White House governors meeting.
Maine Democrats also censured Republican State Representative Laurel Libby after she made a mid-February Facebook post highlighting a male high-school pole vaulter who placed fifth in a boys’ competition last year and then won the girls’ state championship this year. Libby is no longer allowed to speak or cast votes on the House floor.
“The issue with boys in girls’ sports is symptomatic of the larger issue, and that is that the Augusta Democrats have been passing an aggressive, progressive, woke agenda over the last number of years,” including “making huge steps towards things like keeping secrets from parents,” Libby told National Review.
Democrats say they censured Libby because she identified the student on social media, not because of her stance on transgender sports participation. The photos she posted had circulated widely before Libby posted them, according to news reports. Libby contends that her Democratic colleagues are trying to silence her and cancel her.
“This is not something that is supported by and large by Maine’s population,” she said of males competing in female sports. “This very much is an Augusta Democrat agenda that’s pushed by the radical few, and it’s not wanted by our fellow Maine citizens.”
Polling bears out just how unpopular much of the Left’s position on transgender issues is with the general public. A New York Times poll in January found that only 18 percent of respondents supported allowing male athletes who identify as female to participate in female sports. Only 10 percent of respondents supported making puberty blockers and hormone therapy available to children between the ages of ten and 18, the poll found.
Regardless, Maine’s state government is all-in on the side of transgender activists. The state’s Human Rights Act was amended in 2021 to include gender identity as a protected class against discrimination. In 2016, the Maine Human Rights Commission released a memo stating that schools must use their students preferred names and pronouns, allow them to use restrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity, and allow them to compete on sports teams consistent with their gender identity.
Using a transgender student’s preferred name and pronouns creates “a base of respect and inclusion that supports the student and their learning environment throughout the school day,” according to the Maine Department of Education.
In 2023, National Review profiled the case of a Maine mom who filed a federal lawsuit against local school officials after they started referring to her 13-year-old daughter as a boy without her knowledge and provided the middle-schooler with chest binders so she would look more like a boy. Her lawyers argued that school officials violated the mom’s constitutional rights by providing gender-affirming care to her daughter behind her back.
A judge dismissed the complaint in 2023, finding no evidence that the school’s conduct was part of an unwritten practice or custom of withholding information from parents. The case is now on appeal.
The 57 transgender policies and plans identified by Parents Defending Education are generally similar, though there are some district-to-district differences. Most call for staff and fellow students to “respect pronoun choice” and allow students to use the restrooms and locker rooms “consistent with their gender identity.” Some say they will handle request by a student to change their name and gender on a case-by-case basis.
At least one, the Cape Elizabeth School Department, specifically addresses sports participation, stating that a “transgender student shall be eligible to participate in accordance with either their birth sex or in accordance with their gender identity.” Meanwhile, non-binary students “may select the gendered team on which they feel most comfortable participating,” according to the Cape Elizabeth policy.
Some districts do recommend including parents in aspects of their child’s transgender plan. Gorham schools’ guidelines, for instance, note that federal law requires that the district share educational records with parents at their request. So, if “parents ask for an educational record, we will send it,” they state. “We can’t promise a student parents will not find out. We can’t keep this from family. Therefore, focus on talking with the student about how we can work with them to fold their parents into these important decisions.”
Sanzi said that when schools aid a student’s social transition without their parents’ knowledge, they make it more likely the student will pursue a medical intervention.
“You end up facilitating something that could become really, really bad and dangerous for them in the future, and something that they can’t walk back,” Sanzi said.
“When the wheels come off on these kids, none of these school employees who facilitated this or even in some cases did more than facilitate, they’re not going to be around the help this kid pick up the pieces,” she said. “It’s their parents that are going to be there.”