Parental Rights in Schools

“Every student deserves to learn in a safe and supportive setting, free from discrimination.”

-United States Department of Education

Many of the provisions ‘parental rights’ bills are promoting are already law. By law, parents must have reasonable authority within their child's school, that does not mean parents should wholly control what material is taught in the classroom.

The U.S. public school system is secular (non-religious) and state laws have traditionally barred public funding for religious schools.
Federal lad prohibits diiscrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin, sex, disability, and on the basis of age. These laws extend to all state education agencies, elementary and secondary school systems, colleges and universities, vocational schools, proprietary schools, state vocational rehabilitation agencies, libraries, and museums that receive U.S. Department of Education funds.
Children who play sports in public school have many Constitutional rights, including the right for girls to participate equally, the right of students with disabilities to be included, the right of transgender students to be on teams, and the right to be safe from sexual assault, harassment, hazing, physical abuse, negligent supervision, and dangerous training, equipment, and playing environments.
Federal law grants all students who qualify for special education an individually designed instruction program at no cost to their parents. Parents have the legal right to have their child’s educational needs professionally evaluated, determined, and served.
Parents request an exemption in writing or petition the principal. (Note: Parents do not have the right to opt their children out of diversity and tolerance programs.)
Evolution has been presented as a scientific fact in public schools ever since a Supreme Court decision in 1968, and it’s included in the Common Core curriculum adopted by most states.

Every child is entitled to a free public school education in the U.S. However, there may be certain additional expenses that parents still have to pay.
Teachers, administrators, and fellow students cannot harass your children about their race, national origin, color, sex, disability, ethnicity, or religion. If your child is victimized, you can notify the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Parents have the legal right, via the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA, 1974), to inspect their child’s educational records at the school, to have them explained if necessary, to request updates and corrections, and to have their child’s education records sent to another school in a timely manner
Student are often asked to answer non-academic questionnaires that the government uses to gather a variety of personal information. Queries might be on the family’s religious, ethnic, cultural, mental health, nutrition, and exercise. Parents can opt their child out from participating. It is illegal to penalize the children in any way for refusing to take the surveys.
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) allows parents to refuse testing.
Homeschooling is legal in all 50 states. Regulations about homeschooling vary from state to state. In Alaska, no contact with the government is required.

According to GLSEN research, 60 percent of transgender students report having been prohibited from using the bathroom or locker room that aligns with their gender identity. Over three quarters (76 percent) of transgender students felt unsafe at school because of their gender, and transgender people (specifically trans girls and women) are at very high risk of experiencing violence throughout their lives, starting even before adolescence. While these bills are designed to ensure “student safety,” they stigmatize transgender students, putting them more in harm’s way.
State and school districts are now held accountable for high levels of academic attainment and high graduation rates. But the consequences of discrimination, like the discrimination these bills mandate, are real: LGBTQ students who experience discrimination report lower GPAs, higher likelihood of skipping or dropping out of school, higher rates of school discipline, and lower educational aspirations.
Discriminatory policies affect more than just grades. LGBTQ students who experience discrimination, like being prohibited from using the restroom, report higher levels of depression and lower self-esteem. Research shows that, as a result of hostile school climate, transgender students are more likely to abuse drugs than the general population. This places an oversized burden on school-health and public-health officials.
Enforcing these bills would be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming for schools and extraordinarily invasive toward transgender students and any of their cis peers who’s geuder is qestioned.

Bathroom and Locker Room Bans

These bans mostly targets titles by and about Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) and those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+). Voices have been historically underrepresented in print and on library shelves. While everyone has the right to object to a book and request its reconsideration, current activities threaten our right to read and our freedom to receive and share ideas without restriction—a freedom essential to democracy.
Prior to 2020, the vast majority of challenges to library books and resources were brought by a single parent who sought to remove or restrict access to a book their child was reading. However, in 2022, 90% of reported book challenges were demands to censor multiple titles - and of those demands to censor library books, 40% sought to remove or restrict more than 100 books all at once.
You can attend local library, school board, and governance meetings, especially if there has been talk of limiting access to books. Speak out against censorship, and make sure local officials know you support the library, librarians, educators, and access to books of all kinds.
Censorship by the Numbers by the American Library Association
How Book Bans Impact Educators and Students by First Book.
The Impact of a Diverse Classroom Library by First Book.
Banned in the USA: The Mounting Pressure to Censor by PEN America.
Empowered by Reading by Unite Against Book Ban
Book Résumés A new tool created by Unite Against Book Bans helps teachers, librarians, parents, and community members defend books from censorship. They detail each title’s significance and educational value and are easy to share with administrators, book review committees, elected officials, and board members.