71 | Parental Rights and Gender Identity: The Court’s Shadow Docket Decision in Mirabelli v. Bonta

Can a state stop schools from notifying parents when a student socially transitions at school? And what happens when those school-based decisions collide with educators’ legal obligations and families’ constitutional rights? In this episode, we take a deep dive into Mirabelli v. Bonta, the high-profile California case challenging state guidance that prohibited schools from disclosing a student’s gender transition to parents without the student’s consent. Teachers and parents argued the policy placed schools in an impossible position, requiring staff to withhold information from families while navigating sensitive questions about student identity and support. The case moved quickly through the courts and all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court’s emergency docket, raising major questions about parental rights, student privacy, free exercise, and the role of schools in deeply personal matters.For our bellringer, we revisit B.B. v. Capistrano Unified School District, the California student speech case involving a first grader disciplined over a drawing that included “Black Lives Matter” and “All Lives Matter.” The Ninth Circuit recently sent the case back for trial, emphasizing that even very young students may have First Amendment protections and that courts must carefully analyze the facts before schools can restrict student expression.Check out our updated website (www.chalkandgavel.com) to sign up for our newsletter, support the show, find our episode database, and grab some merch.Interested in staying up to date on education law as an educator? Check out ELA's publication, Law and Policy in Schools, at www.educationlaw.org/lapisChalk & Gavel is supported by the Martha McCarthy Education Law & Policy Institute at Indiana University’s School of Education. The McCarthy Institute offers virtual and in-person programming to increase legal literacy. Educators, school leaders, attorneys, policymakers, professors, and others are invited to participate in interactive discussions related to contemporary issues in education law. To learn more and register to attend the 2026 Institute, visit https://education.indiana.edu/events/conferences/mccarthy-institute/index.htmlKeywords:#ParentalRights, #GenderIdentity, #StudentPrivacy, #FirstAmendment, #FreeExercise, #StudentSpeech, #LGBTQ+, #California, #SupremeCourt, #K-12, #Constitution, #EducationLaw