Updated on: April 27, 2026 / 9:58 AM EDT / CBS News
Washington — The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from a Florida couple who said their parental rights were violated by a now-revised school board policy that kept their daughter’s school from informing them about her request to use a different name and pronouns.
By turning away the case, the high court again sidestepped a broader dispute over parental authority versus school policies aimed at protecting student privacy and preventing schools from outing transgender students. At least three justices — Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch — have previously urged courts to address whether a school district violates parents’ rights when it affirms a student’s gender transition without the parents’ knowledge or consent, calling the issue one of “great and growing national importance.” The court’s conservative majority also previously blocked a California law that would have barred schools from withholding notification of a child’s request to use different pronouns while litigation proceeded.
The dispute arose from procedures adopted by the Leon County School Board in 2018 intended to balance safety, privacy, students’ rights and parental notice when a student sought to assert a different gender identity. Under the guide, schools would treat students consistent with the gender identity they asserted. For students identifying as transgender or gender nonconforming, the guide called for a “support plan” to be completed at a meeting with school officials. The procedures acknowledged that outing some students to their parents could be dangerous and directed school officials to seek the student’s consent before notifying parents of the support plan.
Three years after the guide was created, Florida enacted a “Parents’ Bill of Rights” protecting parents’ authority over the “upbringing, education, health care and mental health” of their children. To comply, the school board revised its procedures in June 2022 to ensure school personnel did not intentionally withhold information from parents. Several other states have adopted similar measures concerning parental notification and consent.
In the case at issue, court filings identify the student as A.G., a middle-schooler in Tallahassee. According to the filings, A.G. told her parents, Jan and Jeffrey Littlejohn, that she was confused about her gender and asked to change her name to “J” and use they/them pronouns. The parents did not consent to their daughter using a different name or pronouns at school, though they said she could use “J” as a nickname.
A.G. later told a school counselor she wanted to use a different name and they/them pronouns. School staff — including a counselor, a social worker and a principal — met with the student to complete a support plan and asked about preferred name and pronouns. The Littlejohns say they were not told about or invited to the meeting because their child did not ask for them to attend. They learned of the meeting from A.G. several days later, demanded the school stop meeting privately with their child and treating her as nonbinary, and were later given a copy of the support plan. The parties dispute whether school officials met with A.G. again.
The Littlejohns sued the school board and district officials in 2021, alleging the board’s actions infringed their rights to direct their child’s care and upbringing. A trial court dismissed the case, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit affirmed. The 11th Circuit said it agreed the school infringed the parents’ fundamental rights but concluded the parents failed to meet the legal standard required to prove a violation of their substantive due process rights.
By declining review, the Supreme Court left the lower court ruling in place.
