Blue school district hit with federal complaint alleging it 'sidestepped' law depriving parent of transparency
A pro-Trump legal group has filed a federal complaint against a Maryland school district alleging that parent access to review classroom materials was slowed or denied, in violation of federal law.
In a letter sent to Montgomery County Public Schools and the Department of Education’s Civil Rights Division, America First Legal alleges that a parent in the school district, Mom’s For Liberty director of development Rosalind Hanson, submitted a request to inspect her child’s school curriculum, in accordance with the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, and that MCPS staff "incorrectly processed" the request "rather than following the PPRA’s federally mandated parental inspection procedures."
The complaint states that PPRA has established a "federal right" for parents to inspect "all instructional materials" being disseminated to their children and that "The Family Life and Human Sexuality curriculum" in this case "clearly falls within this definition, as it consists of lesson plans and resources used to instruct students as part of the educational program.""This is not a state records issue — it’s a federal violation," Alice Kass, counsel for America First Legal, told Fox News Digital. "Parents have a right to know what their children are being taught, and Montgomery County cannot hide behind procedural loopholes to avoid transparency."
America First Legal, in a press release, alleged that MCPS "buried the request in bureaucratic red tape" and processed it through an open-records law request which they say not only "sidestepped" federal law but "imposed unlawful delays and fees, and denied a parent the right to review their child’s curriculum."
The letter calls on the Maryland school district to reclassify the parent request as a PPRA investigation as opposed to a Maryland Public Information Act request, provide full access to instructional materials without charge, and clarify its procedures for processing PPRA requests in the future.
In the press release, Kass added that "federal law cannot be clearer" on the issue.