More than 50 school districts in Maine have policies that allow minors to hide their gender identity from their parents, according to a new watchdog report.
Parents Defending Education (PDE), a grassroots organization tracking gender ideologies in schools across the country, filed public records requests to confirm that at least 57 of the state’s 192 school districts have policies excluding parents from knowing whether their children identify as another gender.
The report comes after President Donald Trump chastised Democrat Maine Gov. Janet Millis last week over her refusal to enforce Trump’s “No Men in Women’s Sports” executive order.
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President Trump and the Department of Education building. (Getty Images)
“It was totally unsurprising to see the governor of Maine go to the mat to keep males in women’s sports when over 50 school districts in Maine have written policies to deceive parents about their own child,” PDE spokesperson Erika Sanzi told Fox News Digital Friday.
“We have seen a groundswell of parents in Maine speaking out about this now that they are aware of it, and it is our hope that districts begin to roll back these policies, not only because of the executive orders from the Trump administration but because nearly 80% of their constituents oppose them,” she said.
In one example from the state’s largest district, Portland Public Schools, district policy on “transgender and gender expansive students” requires that if “a student and their parent or legal guardian do not agree with regard to the student’s gender identity or gender expression, the school shall abide by the wishes of the student with regard to their gender identity and gender expression while at school.
“School staff shall comply with the student’s wishes regarding disclosure of their transgender status to others, including but not limited to parents or guardians, students, volunteers or other school staff, unless the student has explicitly authorized the disclosure or unless legally required to do so.”
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A student leads a group of demonstrators in Knoxville, Tenn., in protest of the state’s 2022 transgender athlete ban. (Saul Young/Knoxville News-Sentinel /USA Today)
Policies like Portland’s are also still in place after Trump signed an executive order at the end of January, “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” which states that “steering students toward surgical and chemical mutilation without parental consent or involvement or allowing males access to private spaces designated for females may contravene Federal laws that protect parental rights.”
Trump has already threatened to cut off Maine’s federal funding if it continues to defy his orders.
“I heard men are still playing in Maine,” Trump told to a gathering of Republican governors in Washington last week.
“I hate to tell you this, but we’re not going to give them any federal money. They are still saying, ‘We want men to play in women’s sports,’ and I cannot believe that they’re doing that. … So, we’re not going to give them any federal funding, none whatsoever, until they clean that up.”
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President Donald Trump told Maine Gov. Janet Mills her state needs to comply with an executive order on transgender athletes in school sports during a Feb. 21, 2025, event at the White House. (Reuters Photos | Pool)
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Trump signed the executive order barring men from women’s sports earlier this month, which directs federal agencies to review grants, programs and policies that fail to align with efforts to block male participation in women’s sports “as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.” The order mandates strict enforcement of Title IX and threatens to revoke federal funding from noncompliant educational institutions and athletic organizations.
After the order, several other blue states indicated they would not be complying with it, including California and Minnesota.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Maine Department of Education for comment.
