EXCLUSIVE — The conservative legal group
America First Legal
filed a lawsuit Thursday against the
Department of Education
, seeking to force the agency to adjudicate a
parental rights complaint
filed in 2021.
The initial complaint was filed in 2021 with the Department of Education against Cedar Grove School District in New Jersey under the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, a 1974 law that ensures parental access to school materials and the ability to opt out of school surveys.
The complaints against Cedar Grove claimed the school district had administered several intrusive surveys to children between the ages of 8 and 10 and did not provide their parents with adequate notice to opt out.
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The surveys included questions about the children’s sexual activity, gender identity, religious adherence, and family demographics.
An administrative law judge in New Jersey and the state’s commissioner of education, in response to separate complaints, found the district had violated state law.
The legal group said the Education Department has failed to investigate and adjudicate the complaint in a prompt manner and has now filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Washington, D.C., seeking to compel the agency to act on the PPRA complaint. The group had previously sent the department a letter demanding the department provide information on the status of the complaint.
In a statement announcing the lawsuit, America First Legal senior adviser Ian Prior said that “the only way to hold the Department accountable is through litigation.”
“For the past two years, the Biden administration and Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona have shown contempt and hostility for parents exercising their rights to be involved in their children’s education,” Prior said. “It has been well over a year since our clients filed Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment complaints with the Department of Education for violations by their school district, yet the Department continues to sit on its hands and not enforce the law.”
The law firm is seeking a court order that forces the department to adjudicate the claim within 60 days.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.
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The lawsuit is the latest effort by America First Legal to press the Department of Education on the PPRA.
Last month, the group
filed
a flurry of Freedom of Information Act requests seeking documents related to a planned rewrite by the department of its regulations governing the amendment.
