Aurora Regino filed a lawsuit challenging Chico Unified School District’s parent secrecy policy after her fifth grade daughter was pressured to gender transition by a school counselor at her elementary school.
Chico Unified School District requires all staff to abide by any student’s request to adopt a new gender identity without parental consent or notice. Staff are even directed to conceal the new public gender identity from parents.
The District applied its policy to Aurora Regino’s child, facilitating a social transition at school without her mother’s notice or consent, in violation of Regino’s fundamental interest to oversee the care, custody, and education of her minor child, including the right to make health-related decisions. The District Court dismissed her complaint, and Regino appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
In April 2025, the Ninth Circuit reversed the district court’s dismissal of the case, holding that the district court judge had applied the wrong legal standard when dismissing the case. However, after the case returned to the district court, a new judge again dismissed the case. Regino has now appealed once again to the Ninth Circuit.
In March 2026, CJC filed an amicus curiae brief in support of Regino, citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2026 decision in Mirabelli v. Bonta, affirming that “The right [to parent] protected by these precedents includes the right not to be shut out of participation in decisions regarding their children’s mental health.”
CJC’s brief argues that social transition to a different gender identity during childhood or adolescence is a significant and psychologically impactful health-related decision, and a child or adolescent who exhibits a desire to change their name and pronouns should receive a careful professional assessment prior to transitioning. Given the significance of this decision, parents must be involved and must ultimately decide what is best for their child.
CJC also explains that parents have a well-established, fundamental right under the Fourteenth Amendment to make decisions for their minor children. A school district violates that right when it usurps the parents’ role in significant, health-related decisions.
Status: A decision from the Ninth Circuit is expected at any time.
