May 9, 2025

From: David Spring M. Ed. Director, Washington Parents Network

To: US Department of Education Student Privacy Policy Office (SPPO)
Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education Building
400 Maryland Avenue, SW Washington, DC 20202

RE: Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction violations of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

Submitted Via Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

To Whom It May Concern:
This is a FERPA Parents Rights complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education Student Privacy Policy Office (SPPO). The Washington Parents Network brings this complaint against the Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction in his official capacity in charge of the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) for requiring all 295 school districts in Washington state to force teachers and administrators to keep secret from parents who request important educational records about their children, including the gender transitioning and drug addiction of their children, in programs that receive Federal funding in violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

The Washington Parents Network makes this complaint on behalf of over 2,700 of our members who have students in school districts in Washington state. All of the school districts in Washington state receive federal funding and therefore must comply with FERPA. However, as we review in detail below, recent Washington state laws as well as OSPI statewide mandated policies and Teacher Training procedures require school district administrators and teachers to violate (FERPA). Our complaint includes this 6 page cover letter and a 48 page summary of FERPA volations, divided into 10 sections, outlining how the FERPA rights of our members and their children and students were violated by policies advanced directly or indirectly by Chris Reykdal, who we contend has been violating the plain meaning of FERPA ever since he took office 8 years ago.

In this complaint, we provide 2 parent examples of violations of FERPA that have been inflicted on our parents during the past 8 years. (see Section 9 of this complaint). We also provide 4 school district examples of FERPA violations harming parents in entire school districts. (See Section 7) These examples are evidence that all of our parent members have been harmed by Reykdal’s failure to comply with FERPA.

On behalf of the thousands of members of the Washington Parents Network, we want to thank the DOJ and DOE Joint Title IX Special Investigations Team for launching a directed investigation of the Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) for their many violations of parents rights and girls rights.

In our Title IX and Title VI complaints we recently submitted to the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, we provided a mountain of evidence that, for the past 8 years, OSPI has imposed numerous requirements on Washington school districts that violate not only Title IX, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment but also Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

We also want to thank Congressman Dan Newhouse for encouraging the Special Investigations Team to launch this first in the nation investigation of numerous OSPI violations of federal law that extend far beyond Title IX violations. We have been assured that the Special Investigations team intends to investigate all OSPI civil rights violations occurring here in Washington state. We look forward to working with the Special Investigations Team to ensure that the civil rights of every student, every teacher and every parent in our state are restored.

It is time for Chris Reykdal to stop violating the civil rights of a million students here in Washington state and recognize that under Article VI Section 2 of the US Constitution, any Washington State Civil Rights laws that conflict with federal civil rights laws are null and void. His claim that Washington state civil rights laws allow him to ignore federal civil rights laws is not only absurd, it is a violation of his Oath of Office.

We further ask every school board in Washington State to honor the January 9, 2025 federal court order in the case of Tennessee v Cardona by immediately rescinding Policy 3211 as being in direct violation of Title IX as clarified by that Court Order and as clarified by the August 2024 US Supreme Court ruling in the same case. If OSPI continues to force school districts to violate Title IX, it could mean the retroactive loss of billions of dollars in federal funding due to Reykdal falsely claiming on his annual Title IX Certification Contracts for the past 8 years that Washington was in compliance with Title IX when, by the plain meaning of Title IX, Washington clearly was not in compliance. It is time for Reykdal to finally admit he was wrong, apologize to every student, parent, teacher and school board member for violating their civil rights - and immediately comply with federal law as is required by his Oath of Office.

Sincerely,

David Spring M. Ed.

Washington Parents Network

I have good news and bad news. Here is the good news: On Saturday February 15, 2025 at Noon there will be a rally in favor of Parents Rights at the north steps of the Capitol in Olympia. Please consider attending and sharing this information with anyone you know who cares about protecting the rights of parents and their children.

More good news. On Thursday, February 6, President Trump signed the Save Girls Sports Executive Order which should deny federal education funds to states that continue to allow biological males to take over girls sports. It remains to be seen if it will have any effect on the crazies running Washington state.

Now for the bad news. This week the Senate voted on party lines to pass Senate Bill 5181. This bill, which will gut the Parents Rights Initiative is now in the House Education committee.

If you want to track the progress of this crime, here is the link:

https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary/?BillNumber=5181&Year=2025&Initiative=false

In explaining why parents should not be told when their child decides to take toxic Trans drugs that will permanently sterilize them and greatly increase their risk of cancer, Senator Jamie Pedersen stated: "Kids over 13 have the right to make their own decisions about their mental health care. Parents don't have the right to have notice, they don't have the right to have consent about that" - Washington State Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen (D) February 7, 2025

Anyone who has raised an actual teenager probably already knows this, but from a scientific child development point of view, the ages from 13 to 17 are the absolutely WORST TIME to allow kids to make life altering decisions without the benefit of their parents. Here is a graph of mental health problems by age range:

https://www.cdc.gov/children-mental-health/data-research/index.html

You can clearly see from the above graph that teenagers tend to suffer from all kinds of mental health problems beginning about age 12. Basically, teenagers go crazy for a few years.

Even if a child does not suffer from mental health problems, minors cannot give informed consent because children have immature brains, they are vulnerable to peer pressure, and they don’t grasp long-term consequences. The prefrontal cortex, which is where complex decisions are made, is not fully developed until about age 20. This is why young adults get more speeding tickets and car accidents than older adults.

Here is a link to a report on adolescent brain development: https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/146/Supplement_1/S18/34490/Adolescent-Brain-Development-and-Medical-Decision?autologincheck=redirected

The good news is that kids usually regain their sanity sometime between the ages of 20 to 25. Ignoring this basic scientific research, Senate Bill 5181, insists that kids should be allowed to make their own decisions not just at age 13 – but as early as AGE 5. This is why I have reached the conclusion that the leaders of the Democratic party have gone completely nuts. This is no longer about right versus left. This is about Common Sense versus Crazy.

But it gets worse. Much worse. You may have no idea that your 9 year old is being given toxic Trans Drugs. But you will still be required to pay the bill. And the bill for each year of Puberty Blockers could range from $20,000 to $50,000. Multiple this times four to six years and it will give you an idea of how truly crazy the crooks in Olympia have become.

Here is a quote from Brian Heywood, Parents Rights Initiative Sponsor, last week (when he was trying to talk some sense into the lunatics in Olympia):

“There is a secondary issue here because, while parents are not allowed to know what medical treatment is being given or done to their child once they turn 13, the parents are required financially to pay for any such treatment. If a parent asks to know the details of the treatment, WA does not allow the doctors or teachers or state employees to give that information to the parent. If they do not pay, their debt is sent to a collector…”

Brian is correct. This is why we need to start local community news websites so we can get this information out to parents, most of whom are Independent voters and have no idea about the kind of crimes currently occuring in Olympia. More on this at the end of this article. First, we need to summarize the crimes committed against parents and kids during the past couple of weeks.

Last week, we reviewed Senate Bill 5181 which will repeal the Parents Rights Initiative and replace it with the draconian Senate Bill 5599 – allowing the state to kidnap our kids and hide them from their parents – a law that was opposed by 99% of all parents – and a law that led to the Parents Rights Initiative in the first place. There will be a hearing on this bill on January 21^st at 8 am. Here is a link to the bill page in case you want to submit a comment opposing this bill:

https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary/?BillNumber=5181&Year=2025&Initiative=false

This week, we will review House Bill 1296 which will further erode the legal rights of parents here in Washington state – and prove beyond any doubt that the Washington State legislature has no respect for the rights of parents and has no understanding of the importance of the parent-child relationship to the health and well being of children.

Before we dive into this bill, I want to make it clear that the true rights of Parents can not be removed by any bill or any legislature. The rights of parents are God Given Rights that preceded not only the Washington State Constitution, but even the US Constitution. The parent-child relationship is a sacred God Given Relationship that is fundamental to the development of the child. Any bill by the legislature to erode parents rights and stand between a parent and their child will be severely harmful not only to the parent but to their child. It is therefore up to all of us who care about the wellbeing of children to protect the rights of their parents.

A Blessing in Disguise
Any parent following the legislature this year has every right to be angry about bills like Senate Bill 5181 and House Bill 1296 - and many other bills which we will be reviewing in the coming weeks. Feel free to email the legislature and let them know you oppose these bills. But also be aware that regardless of the number of parents who contact the them opposing these bills, every one of these anti-parent bills are almost certain to pass this year.