Federal Government Orders Montana to Remove Gender Content From Sex Education Curriculum

HELENA — The federal government has ordered Montana and 45 other states and territories to strip all content related to gender identity and gender ideology from their state-funded sex education curricula within 60 days or risk losing federal grant funding.

In identical letters dated August 26 and sent to 46 states and territories, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) instructed the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services and other recipients to remove references to transgender, gender non-conforming, and non-binary youth from their Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) curricula and materials.

The sweeping federal action comes one week after ACF terminated California’s PREP grant for failing to comply with similar demands to remove gender ideology from educational materials.

“The statute neither requires, supports nor authorizes teaching students that gender identity is distinct from biological sex or that boys can identify as girls and vice versa,” wrote Acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison in the five-page compliance letter.

“Accountability is coming,” Gradison said in a federal press release announcing the nationwide action. “Federal funds will not be used to poison the minds of the next generation or advance dangerous ideological agendas. The Trump Administration will ensure that PREP reflects the intent of Congress, not the priorities of the left.”

The federal action targets specific content in two curricula produced by Education Training Research (ETR) and used in Montana schools: “Draw the Line/Respect the Line,” an evidence-based program for middle school students in grades 6, 7 and 8, and “Making Proud Choices,” designed for teens ages 12-18. The flagged material includes guidance for teachers on working with transgender students, instructions on asking students for their preferred pronouns, and discussions of gender identity as distinct from biological sex.

Among the specific content flagged for removal:

• Teacher guidance stating that dividing classes by gender “can cause trauma for transgender, gender non-conforming, and non-binary youth”
• Recommendations that mixed-gender groups are “best practice” specifically to increase “inclusivity for transgender, gender nonconforming, and non-binary youth”
• Instructions for teachers to proactively address “awkwardness” when teens roleplay with same-gender partners, specifically mentioning “teens who are transgender or gender nonconforming”
• Emphasis that teens “of all sexual orientations and gender identities” need to learn relationship skills
• Instructions for facilitators to ask students for their preferred pronouns to create “a safe space for transgender or gender nonconforming youth,” including guidance to model sharing pronouns and accommodate “more creative pronouns such as hir or zir”
• Directives that facilitators should “define terms related to diversity as needed” and then provide specific definitions distinguishing gender from biological sex
• Instructions to respect diversity by acknowledging that “some may identify as male, female or transgender”
• Statements that “young people may express themselves in ways that don’t conform with their biological sex”
• Definitions of gender identity as “peoples’ inner understanding of what gender they identify with” that “may be different from the sex they were assigned at birth”
• Discussion of gender expression as how people represent their gender identity through “behavior, clothing, hairstyles, voice or body characteristics”

ACF identified the content during a medical accuracy review requested in April. However, the agency ultimately concluded that the gender-related material falls outside the scope of the federal PREP statute and abandoned the medical accuracy review entirely.

“We are no longer conducting a review for medical accuracy because the content that we were going to review for medical accuracy is outside of the subjects that are statutorily authorized in this program,” the letter states.

The Personal Responsibility Education Program provides federal funding to states for comprehensive sex education programs focusing on both abstinence and contraception for preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. The statute authorizes education on specific “adulthood preparation subjects” including healthy relationships, financial literacy, and communication skills.

Montana must submit revised materials by October 27, 2025, or face potential federal enforcement actions including withholding or termination of grant funding.

ACF acknowledged in the letter that previous federal administrators had approved the Montana curricula containing gender-related content. However, the current administration determined that “the prior administration erred in allowing PREP grants to be used to teach students gender ideology because that approval exceeded the agency’s authority to administer the program consistent with the authorizing legislation.”

In response to the federal compliance order, DPHHS Communications Director Jon Ebelt said the department will ensure curriculum modifications are made.

“DPHHS did not develop the program’s educational materials. In the coming weeks, we will ensure that the curriculum is modified by our grantees in accordance with ACF guidance,” Ebelt said. “In addition, the Gianforte administration does not believe that minor children should be taught gender ideology.”

The federal compliance order comes as Montana has positioned itself at the forefront of national battles over parental rights and gender policies in schools. In July, Attorney General Austin Knudsen led a 23-state coalition challenging a Delaware school district’s policy that allows officials to withhold information about students’ gender identity decisions from parents.

“The district’s policy upends centuries of natural and constitutional law. The policy gives ultimate decision-making authority to children and displaces parents of their longstanding, primary role in ensuring their child’s safety and well-being,” Knudsen wrote in that legal brief.

The state has also faced its own controversies over government intervention in families, including the ongoing Kolstad case where state officials removed a teenager from her family over disagreements about transgender issues.

The deadline for compliance coincides with ongoing legal and policy battles across the country over the role of schools in addressing gender identity issues and the extent of parental rights in their children’s education and healthcare decisions.

“The right of parents to direct the care and custody of their children is perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests recognized by the Supreme Court,” the Montana-led coalition argued in their July court filing.

This story was updated at 9:30 a.m. on September 3, 2025, with response from the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services.