Greater than 20 Seattle public center and excessive faculties surveyed children about gender id and sexual orientation with out telling their dad and mom — and allegedly shared the information with third events.
The state’s Test Your self Survey, which is run in each Seattle center college and highschool, prompts college students as younger as 11 to reply questions and fill within the blanks about their private lives, the Nationwide Evaluation reported.
“I’m probably to have a crush on,” one query asks earlier than offering an inventory of solutions which incorporates “all genders” and “women and men.”
One other immediate reads “About Me: I determine as,” with the choices listed together with “questioning my gender id” and “non-binary.”
College students, some as younger as sixth-graders, have been additionally requested what their “high targets” are for the approaching 12 months, with “be in a romantic relationship” listed as an possibility, the outlet reported.
The children didn’t all respect the questions.
“No I’m additionally twelve,” one answered, in response to the outlet, whereas one other responded, “why do you need to know my sexual orientation,” and one other replied: “I by no means need to do that once more.”
The survey, which has been taken by 67,000 college students since its inception almost a decade in the past, additionally asks college students about smoking, consuming, drug use, suicidal ideation and issues at residence together with “preventing or bodily hurting others.”
The information was allegedly shared with quite a few third events, together with Seattle Youngsters’s Hospital Analysis Institute and King County, which encompasses Seattle, in response to Nationwide Evaluation.
The US Division of Schooling’s Scholar Personal Coverage workplace is investigating the Seattle-area faculties.
Mother and father stated they have been by no means knowledgeable of the sexual nature of a few of the survey questions, or that the data can be shared exterior the faculties, the Nationwide Evaluation reported.
Practically two dozen dad and mom signed a letter insisting faculties get written permission earlier than administering the survey.
“If dad and mom need to signal their children up for a program that releases their well being data and their personally identifiable data, that’s their determination, however each father or mother deserves to make this determination underneath knowledgeable written consent,” Seattle mother Stephanie Hager advised the Nationwide Evaluation.
“These data are tremendous beneficial as a result of that is very troublesome data to get from college students or from adolescents, children, minors,” Hager claimed.
The King County Ombudsman’s Workplace discovered “no proof signifies wrongful disclosure of personal pupil data by King County,” in response to a 2024 report — which additionally acknowledged that one college district launched “delicate pupil figuring out data . . . a number of years in the past.”
Seattle Public Faculties reportedly used a $1.5 million federal grant for the survey in 2025 by the federal Substance Abuse and Psychological Well being Companies Administration.
A spokesperson for SAMHSA advised The Put up that the funds can’t be used for companies that violate federal legislation and that the company is reviewing the matter internally. The county denied accountability for the disclosure.
The Division of Schooling, the Washington Workplace of Superintendent of Public Instruction and Seattle Public Faculties didn’t reply to The Put up’s requests for remark.
