Maryland’s largest school district will charge the parental rights group, Parents Defending Education, $18,290.96, to obtain public records of correspondence about the district’s opt-out policy.

Outrage over Montgomery County Public Schools’ opt-out policy began in May, when the district banned previously allowed opt-out measures for its gender and sexuality curriculum. Parents filed a lawsuit with Becket Law soon after, asking the district to reinstate its opt-out policy. The district’s current guidelines violate “the parents’ inalienable and constitutionally protected right to control the religious upbringing of their children, especially on sensitive issues concerning family life and human sexuality,” lawyers say. A judge is set to issue an injunction by August 28, the first day of school, that will determine if students can opt out of the curriculum during the 2023-24 school year.

“Montgomery County Public Schools’ fee estimate is one of the highest that we’ve seen over the past three years — and it is unquestionably a matter of significant public interest, given both ongoing protests and a federal lawsuit filed against the district, and such a figure is undoubtedly intended to chill requests and discourage oversight,” Parents Defending Education president Nicole Neiley said.

In her Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA) request, Neiley asked for “all records in the possession of Montgomery County Public Schools between April 1, 2023, and Aug. 2, 2023, that contain the terms ‘opt-out’ and/or ‘opt out’” from 30 registered MCPS email addresses.

The district’s communications director, Christopher Cram, told Neiley in a response to the MPIA that, “based on your unwillingness to narrow the scope” of the request, the request would cost $18,290.96, and take until October 2 to complete. The MPIA only allows agencies to charge a “reasonable fee” for public records, of which, “the goal . . . should be . . . neither to make a profit nor to bear a loss on the cost of providing information to the public,” according to the attorney general’s office, and agencies are normally expected to comply with requests in 30 days.

“Is it little wonder that families have lost trust in the school system when requests for transparency are met with disdain and condescension?” Neiley said.