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By Makiah Lyons, J.D., & Paige Duggins-Clay, J.D.  • Federal Education Law and Policy Update • October 9, 2025

Resource from the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA), a nonprofit advancing education equity.

Across the country, particularly in the U.S. South, state legislatures have intensified efforts to limit students’ access to accurate and diverse curricula, books and student programs. The 2025 Texas legislative session resulted in the expansion of censorship laws, while Georgia school leaders sought to defend a suite of 2023 censorship laws.

Some school leaders have sought to wield these laws to target lawful diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and LGBTQ+ affirming practices.

Southern students, educators and civil rights groups are taking action to challenge these harmful developments in court.

Texas Challenge: On August 28,  the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the Transgender Law Center, and law firm Baker McKenzie filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging Texas’s student identity censorship law (Senate Bill 12).

The law is considered one of the most extreme curriculum censorship laws in the country, banning all activities and programs that mention race, ethnicity, gender identity or sexual orientation. Among other provisions, the law bans all gender and sexuality alliance (GSA) clubs and prohibits diversity, equity and inclusion programs in K-12 schools.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Genders and Sexualities Alliance Network, Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, a teacher, an individual student and her parent.

Georgia Challenge: In February of this year, the Southern Poverty Law Center and partner organizations, including the National Education Association and the Southern Education Foundation, filed a federal lawsuit challenging censorship policies in Cobb County School District in Georgia. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Cobb County educators and the Georgia Association of Educators.

This lawsuit follows the 2023 firing of teacher Katie Rinderle for reading My Shadow is Purple to her fifth-grade class. The school district’s policies were enacted in response to a trio of classroom censorship laws passed in Georgia in 2022, including House Bill 1084, HB 1178 and SB 226.

The district’s policy prohibits school employees from influencing students regarding political or partisan issues or sharing personal political beliefs. The policy also requires teachers to remain “objective” on all issues. These vague terms have proven to create a chilling effect for students and educators and led to the censorship of diverse and inclusive books and curricula.

Rinderle is challenging the district’s policies under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, alleging that the district’s policy is unconstitutionally vague, discriminatory on the basis of gender identity, and that the district violated Rinderle’s due process rights.

In August of 2025, a U.S. District Court paused the lawsuit pending resolution of a separate state court lawsuit challenging Rinderle’s termination.

This article appeared with other articles in the October 2025 edition of the IDRA Federal Education Law and Policy Update. See the full edition.

FAQs

Q: What do these lawsuits challenge?

A: They target laws restricting lessons and programs addressing race, gender identity, and inclusion.

Q: Why are these laws harmful?

A: They silence educators and deny students access to accurate, inclusive learning.

Q: What states are involved?

A: Texas and Georgia face separate but related lawsuits challenging censorship in schools.