Burlington Parents Opted Kids Out of Explicit Sex Survey. Their Middle Schoolers were Forced to Take it Anyway.
The YRBS survey told 6th graders about sex toys and asked if they are pansexual. The BPS violated federal law. Parents are demanding action.
Over the last weekend in March, we learned that something very disturbing had happened in the Burlington Public Schools (BPS). Through the Massachusetts Informed Parents FB group, BPS parents alerted us that their middle and high school students had been given a sexually explicit survey during the school day. Even worse than the survey itself was the fact that multiple students whose parents had intentionally opted them out were forced to take the survey anyway.
This survey, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), included shockingly graphic content, asking students:
Which of the following best describes your sexual orientation?
Which of the following terms best describes your current gender identity?
Sexual intercourse includes vaginal sex which is when a penis goes inside of a vagina, oral sex which is contact between the mouth and genitals, anal sex which is when the penis goes inside an anus (butt), and use of toys or props (vaginal or anal). Have you ever had sexual intercourse?
Additional questions touched on mature issues such as substance use, sexual violence, and other sensitive topics. (Note: a public records request has been submitted for the entire survey given to Burlington students. We will update this post once this becomes available. In the meantime, Wilmington also administers this survey. You can see their version on their district website here).
Rightfully, parents were livid. Not only were these graphic and leading questions wildly inappropriate for students as young as 6th grade, but the blatant disregard for parental opt-out requests was a serious violation of trust and parental rights. At the April 1st school committee meeting, outraged parents showed up with a clear message: exposing our children to this survey was unacceptable, and we demand accountability.
One mother described how her 6th-grade son with special needs came home visibly upset by the survey questions. Another mother stated that even though her son was successfully opted out of the survey, it was still shown to him by a friend who didn’t understand some of the unfamiliar and graphic terms. Her son, who didn’t understand the references either, suggested that they “Google it” – potentially exposing both children to adult material on the internet.
Watch powerful parent testimony from that meeting below:
As soon as we learned of this situation, Massachusetts Family Institute’s legal center, Massachusetts Liberty Legal Center (MLLC), stepped in to support the parents. What happened in Burlington wasn’t just wrong—it was illegal. By forcing students to take this graphic survey against their parents wishes, the district hadn’t only upset parents, violated their parental rights, and exposed children to confusing sexual content, it also violated the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA), a federal law protecting students from being surveyed on sensitive topics without parental consent. On Tuesday, MLLC attorney Sam Whiting sent a formal legal letter to the BPS superintendent and school committee, outlining the PPRA violations and demanding corrective action. MLLC also submitted multiple formal PPRA complaints to the U.S. Department of Education’s Student Privacy Policy Office on behalf of parents whose children were subjected to the survey in direct violation of their opt-out requests. Read the legal letter from MLLC and two of the PPRA complaints below.
The Burlington School Committee held another meeting on Tuesday evening. Once again, exasperated parents filled the room to speak boldly in defense of their children and call for accountability. At the April 1st meeting, the committee chair assured parents that the next agenda would include items addressing the situation with potential policy changes. However, at this week’s meeting, the committee merely referenced reviewing policies from other districts and drafting a new one for Burlington without offering any clear pledge to parents on when a decisive vote would take place.
One courageous school committee member urged his colleagues to act, stating that if they make a promise to parents, they must follow through on it. He further emphasized that the reason the committee is in conflict with concerned parents is because it has not consistently honored its commitments.
During the meeting, the committee unanimously voted to suspend all student surveys until a new policy is adopted and also voted to remove all funding for JSI, the survey provider, from the upcoming budget. While these were positive steps, many parents felt the actions didn’t go far enough. One parent even called for Superintendent Conti’s resignation, expressing the deep frustration and lack of trust now felt by many in the community. We commend the Burlington parents for their persistence, courage, and unwavering advocacy for their children. Watch their compelling comments below.
The YRBS is not just an issue for Burlington, however. The Burlington YRBS is part of an effort across the “Middlesex League,” which also includes Arlington, Belmont, Melrose, Reading, Stoneham, Wakefield, Wilmington, Winchester, Woburn, and Watertown. It has been reported to us that Wakefield intends to administer the survey on April 17th, and it is unclear when the other towns intend to administer theirs (or if they already have done so). Parents should find out what is happening in their district.
What happened in Burlington is also a good reminder of why (sadly) parents need to be vigilant about reading district communications - and reading between the lines of those communications. According to Burlington parents, the BPS only communicated to Burlington parents ONCE about the 2025 YRBS, via a message sent through the ParentSquare app. The message, visible below, did not include the survey questions, nor did it fully explain to parents how explicit the content of the survey would be. No reminders were sent about the survey, and if parents happened to miss seeing this one message, their lack of response was recorded as consent for their child to participate. This isn’t right, of course, but this is how many districts operate. Until parents can pressure local school committees to pass policies that call for multiple notifications or opt-in policies rather than opt-out, they need to know that their district might communicate the same way Burlington did (which is to say, not well enough at all).
If you are outside of the Middlesex League towns, you need to watch out for surveys like this too. Back in 2023 we wrote about the Metrowest Health Survey, which was also given to kids as young as middle school and contained many similar questions. In that case we were not aware of any districts that ignored parental opt outs like Burlington did, but the survey content was troublesome regardless. And the “why” behind these surveys is as important as the “what,” because these surveys rarely come about organically or as a response to district-level issues. Often these surveys are funded, in part or in whole, by big money groups with agendas that extend far beyond the scope of the local public school. There are forms of the YRBS administered all over MA, and parents everywhere need to be opting their kids out of these surveys. If another school ignores the opt out and breaks the federal law like Burlington did, the MLLC stands at the ready to help parents push back.
We will continue to track this story, and we will be watching to see what the Burlington school committee does to make this right. We commend the Burlington parents for standing up for their children, and for the children of their community. We hope that we will also be able to commend the Burlington school committee for taking corrective action in the upcoming months. We like to give credit where credit is due, and we would love to do that in this case, too.
If you are a Burlington parent impacted by this PPRA violation and would like assistance filing a federal PPRA complaint, contact MLLC today, at contact@malibertylegal.org, or 774-462-7043.
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Why do they want to know answers to these personal questions?
Happened in MD about 12 yrs ago. The test came out of Johns Hopkins School of Health. It was part of the county "Health" curriculum and my daughter flung the permission slip in my face so I signed it without reading it carefully. She told me it was about smoking and drug use...so of course I signed it and didn't even read it (especially the very small print on the bottom!). OMG!!! It blew up in the county (lots of Indians, Muslims, Asians) as the parents revolted. My own 6th grader asked me if she was weird for not having sex (one of the questions was how many times a week are you having sex....the wording). The other problem was that even though the survey was anonymous (?), enough information was available so that the survey results could be traced directly back to the student (I guess for "intervention"?). It was NEVER administered again in my county! Kids took photos of the questions and posted them online....proof!