A New Jersey school district now faces a federal lawsuit for letting students change their gender identity at school without ever telling their parents.
Quick Take
- Moms for Liberty and the Thomas More Society sued the School District of the Chathams over Policy 5145.7.
- The suit claims the policy lets counselors hide a student’s gender transition from parents.
- New Jersey’s education department has told schools since 2018 they have no duty to notify parents.
- This fight mirrors earlier lawsuits already decided in Middletown, Manalapan, and Marlboro school districts.
The Lawsuit Against Chatham’s Policy
The Thomas More Society filed the complaint in U.S. District Court for New Jersey on behalf of parents in the Chathams. It claims Policy 5145.7, adopted by the district in January 2024, violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The lawsuit says school staff can use a student’s chosen name and pronouns and keep their transgender status private from parents.
Parents behind the suit argue this goes beyond privacy. They say it cuts them out of one of the biggest decisions a child can make. The complaint frames the policy as giving school employees the power to decide what parents get to know about their own kids, a power parents say belongs to them alone.
What State Guidance Actually Says
New Jersey’s Department of Education issued guidance in 2018 stating schools have no affirmative duty to tell a parent about a student’s gender identity or expression. The guidance goes further, saying a district shall accept a student’s asserted gender identity without requiring parental consent at all.
The same guidance instructs school personnel to keep a student’s transgender status confidential except when the law allows disclosure. State materials describe a narrow exception only when there is a specific and compelling need, such as a health or safety concern or a bias incident at school.
A Statewide Pattern of Courtroom Fights
Chatham is not the first New Jersey district pulled into this fight. Middletown, Manalapan-Englishtown, and Marlboro school boards each tried to pass their own parental-notification rules requiring staff to tell parents about a gender identity change. A state appellate court blocked those mandates, then later let some districts drop the state’s directive entirely in February 2025.
The dispute has already reached the highest court in the country. The U.S. Supreme Court issued a per curiam ruling letting parents proceed with claims that schools infringed their free exercise and due process rights, though the decision was procedural and did not settle the underlying question nationwide.
NO MORE SECRETS
Public school officials—administrators, teachers, and counselors—are not allowed to keep secrets with other people’s children. That’s creepy.
They must not maintain separate files meant to deceive parents or to facilitate social or medical so-called “gender… pic.twitter.com/AIHC4WmF34— Moms for Liberty (@Moms4Liberty) September 5, 2026
That leaves families and school boards stuck in an uneasy legal limbo, arguing over the same basic question in district after district. Parents keep insisting they have a constitutional right to know what is happening with their own children at school. That is not an unreasonable position. A policy built to withhold a major personal decision from moms and dads, absent an actual safety threat, treats parents as an obstacle rather than the people raising the child.
Supporters of the state’s approach say the guidance protects vulnerable students from unsupportive homes and leaves disclosure to the student. But the Chatham lawsuit argues that framing assumes the worst about parents by default, rather than trusting them as the first line of care and judgment for their own kids.
Sources:
thegatewaypundit.com, christianpost.com, nj1015.com, nypost.com, nj.com
