What to know
- HHS’ Administration for Children and Families ended California’s PREP grant on Aug. 21, 2025, after the state refused to remove gender identity content.
- California could lose up to $12.3 million in remaining PREP funds; it received just under $6 million in FY 2022.
- The decision stands unless the state appeals to the Departmental Appeals Board within 30 days.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF) has terminated federal funding for California’s Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP), citing the state’s refusal to remove “gender ideology” from curriculum materials. The move follows a 60-day notice issued in June directing the state to strip gender identity content or risk losing the grant.
“California’s refusal to comply with federal law and remove egregious gender ideology from federally funded sex-ed materials is unacceptable,” Andrew Gradison, acting assistant secretary at the Administration for Children and Families, said in comment provided to Fox News Digital Thursday. “The Trump Administration will not allow taxpayer dollars to be used to indoctrinate children. Accountability is coming for every state that uses federal funds to teach children delusional gender ideology.”
California’s PREP program serves youth ages 10–19 and is designed to reduce teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. The state says the program has led to students delaying sexual activity, increasing condom or contraceptive use for sexually active youth, or reducing the number of sexual partners. “Program services are engaging, nonjudgmental, medically accurate and tailored to the unique needs of youth participants and their communities,” the PREP website states.
ACF began reviewing California’s materials in March to ensure content was medically accurate and age-appropriate. After determining the curriculum included subjects it said fell outside the program’s authorizing statute—particularly references to gender identity—the agency set a 60-day deadline to remove those elements. When the deadline expired, ACF notified California officials that all PREP awards were terminated and funding suspended effective Aug. 21, 2025.
Among the examples cited by federal reviewers was a lesson for middle school students introducing concepts of transgender identity. “We’ve been talking during class about messages people get on how they should act as boys and girls—but as many of you know, there are also people who don’t identify as boys or girls, but rather as transgender or gender queer,” the lesson states to students. “This means that even if they were called a boy or a girl at birth and may have body parts that are typically associated with being a boy or a girl, on the inside, they feel differently.”
ACF also flagged teacher training materials addressing pronouns and terminology. “All people have a gender identity,” the teacher training materials stated, Fox Digital previously reported. It also instructed educators to refer to people who identify with their sex “assigned at birth” as “cisgender,” and added that those who are not “cisgender” may identify as “non-binary, agender, bigender, genderfluid, (or) genderqueer.”
In a press release describing its findings, HHS said: “In a disturbing and egregious abuse of federal funds, California has been using taxpayer money to teach curricula that could encourage kids to contemplate mutilating their genitals, ‘altering their body… through hormone therapy,’ ‘adding or removing breast tissue,’ and ‘changing their name.’ It instructed teachers to ‘remind students that some men are born with female anatomy.’”
California declined to make changes after the June directive. “CDPH will not make any such modifications at this time for several reasons,” the California Department of Public Health said in a letter to ACF earlier this week, according to HHS. “The listed reasons were: 1) PREP materials had already been reviewed and approved by ACF; 2) the materials are medically accurate; 3) the gender ideology content is relevant to purposes identified in the authorizing statute, specifically the adult preparation subjects listed at 42 U.S.C. § 713(b)(2)(C); and 4) ACF does not have authority to take an enforcement action.”
Previous federal awards show California’s PREP program received just under $6 million in FY 2022. HHS said the state stands to lose $12.3 million in funds not yet disbursed, spanning multiple years.
ACF’s notice to California health officials stated the decision is final unless the state challenges it. “This is the final decision of the Administration for Children and Families,” the letter reads. “It shall be the final decision of the Department unless, within 30 days after receiving this decision, you submit a notice of appeal to the Departmental Appeals Board (DAB).”
