The U.S. Department of Education is investigating school districts in San Francisco, Palo Alto, and North Monterey County, alleging that their ethnic studies courses that include exercises about identity and privilege pressure students to provide personal information without parental consent.
That could violate federal law that is meant to protect student privacy.
Some parents in SFUSD were also upset about this in 2025, which led to a new ethnic studies textbook. But parents still sued the school district because they felt like the new curriculum was adopted too quickly.
The San Francisco Unified School District has declined to comment at this time.
