The U.S. Department of Education has opened an investigation into the Minnesota Department of Education to ensure compliance with the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment after a complaint was received on behalf of parents regarding the use of “transgender dolls” in schools. The probe, announced Wednesday, stems from a complaint filed with the department’s Student Privacy Policy Office by the advocacy group Defending Education.
According to the department’s announcement, “MyGenderDolls” feature removable, interchangeable internal and external genitalia, gender-neutral names, and clothing for both sexes, and are described as expected to be available to Minnesota educators for use with students as young as 4 years old this fall. The dolls’ developers describe them as a therapeutic tool intended for use by trained professionals working with gender-diverse children ages 4 to 10 — not as general classroom instructional material — and Minnesota education officials say they have no plans to mandate the dolls in any district this year.
Parents in the underlying complaint said they were not notified of the program or given a chance to opt their children out, which they argued violated their rights under the pupil-privacy law.
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said that “no four-year-old should be exposed to such material without a parent’s knowledge or consent,” and vowed the department would enforce the law “to its fullest extent.”
The dolls originated from research conducted through the Eli Coleman Institute for Sexual and Gender Health, part of the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Department of Family Medicine and Community Health. The project received an internal Early Innovation Fund grant from the institute in 2023 — a University of Minnesota research-development mechanism, not a state or federal appropriation. The commercial product is now sold through MyGender Dolls LLC, which university officials say is a private, independent company not affiliated with the university.
Defending Education’s complaint to federal regulators alleges the program was developed with state backing under Gov. Tim Walz’s administration. Founder and President Ms. Nicole Neily said the dolls amount to “a slap in the face to Minnesota families and taxpayers.”
University and state officials dispute that characterization. A University of Minnesota spokesperson told Fox 9 that “MyGender Dolls is a private, independent LLC, not affiliated with the University of Minnesota” and said the project received no state or federal funding. Mr. Walz’s office told WDIO it has no involvement in the dolls’ release or use in schools, and the Minnesota Department of Education reiterated it has no plans to mandate their use this year.
The investigation is part of a broader Trump administration push this week to enforce federal parental-rights laws in schools, which the Education Department says will include additional enforcement actions in the days ahead.
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