(April 11, 2025 – San Diego, California) On April 10, 2025, U.S.District Court Judge Roger T. Benitez denied a motion to dismiss filed by California’s Superintendent of Public Instruction and the members of the California State Board of Education (SBE) in Mirabelli v. Olson, the Thomas More Society lawsuit challenging “Parental Exclusion Policies.” The ruling, favoring parents and teachers represented by Thomas More Society, allows their claims against the California Department of Education (CDE) to proceed.

The court rejected arguments that the claims against the CDE were moot following their replacement of the “Frequently Asked Questions” webpage with new guidance following the enactment of Assembly Bill 1955. The FAQs directed California School Districts to adopt Parental Exclusion Policies, or the non-disclosure of students’ gender dysphoria signs to parents, in violation of parents’ and teachers’ constitutional rights. The court found that the defendants failed to meet the “formidable burden” of proving the challenged policy could not reasonably be expected to recur, citing the lack of clear, unequivocal policy change and the ease with which the CDE could revert to its prior practices.

This ruling follows earlier victories in the case, including the Court’s January 7, 2025, denial of motions to dismiss for lack of standing and the Court’s groundbreaking Preliminary Injunction ruling finding that the policies at issue likely violate the First Amendment rights of teachers and the Fourteenth Amendment rights of parents. In March 2025, the U.S. Department of Education launched an investigation into the CDE for alleged violations of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). The probe targets policies that allow schools to conceal students’ gender dysphoria from parents.

Paul Jonna, Thomas More Society Special Counsel and Partner, LiMandri & Jonna LLP, stated: “Time and time again, the California Department of Education has tried to weasel its way out of our case and sidestep legal accountability. The CDE claimed that it cured the problem by quietly taking down its parental deception guidance page, but the Court saw through this tactic. Our depositions of the CDE, and their own public filings, conclusively demonstrate that the CDE has actually never wavered from its core position—the dangerous notion that children have a constitutional right to hide their gender identity from their own parents. We’re encouraged by the Court’s ruling, and we will keep prosecuting this case until we obtain permanent, class-wide relief for parents, children, and teachers, by putting the final nail in the coffin of California’s Parental Exclusion Policies.”

Read the Order Denying SPI / SBE’s Motion to Dismiss, issued on April 10, 2025, in Mirabelli, et al. v. Olson, et al., here.