Schools' approach to parental rights spark congressional debate

SALT LAKE CITY — During a House committee meeting Thursday, lawmakers debated whether schools should be able to conceal a student's chosen name and gender from their parents.

Some states and school districts are denying parents full access to information about their children's education, committee chairman Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., said as he began the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education meeting.

Kiley referenced a survey from Defending Education, published Tuesday, which found that 1,215 school districts educating more than 12 million students have adopted "parental exclusion policies."

These policies have allowed or required school personnel to "hide basic information from parents, such as the name their child uses in school and the gender the child identifies with," Kiley said. He added, "In some cases, districts are creating dummy files on children for the specific purpose of deceiving parents on important matters."

Utah representative says competition between schools can solve these issues

Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, described the need for parents to be involved in their children's education to have a better chance at success.

"Education is most important, most meaningful and impactful when parents, teachers and schools work together in harmony," he said. "However, some schools increasingly see parents as an obstacle that needs to be ignored or overcome."

Owens continued, "Cutting out parents is not only bad for the long-term well-being of our children, but more importantly, it's not their job. ... Today we are here to strengthen the partnership between parents and schools, so the needs of students are met."

Competition among schools could help to solve this issue, Owens said. "This is why we need school choice. ... When parents see something wrong in a school, if it's systemic and they have to debate you, find somewhere else to take your kids. That's why choice is so important. Choice will give us the best options across the board, and those who don't do it right will go out of business, and that's the way it should be," he said.

There are three states left in the nation that have not legalized charter schools: Nebraska, Vermont and South Dakota.

Utah state lawmakers approved an $8,000 voucher program for parents to spend on their children's homeschool, private school or other education provider, though that is currently being tested in the state's Supreme Court.

Committee Democrats take a different stance

Rep. Adelita S. Grijalva, D-Ariz., said during the hearing she had "never heard of some of the situations" that were brought up by the education witnesses the committee brought in, including Laura Powell, Deborah Figliolah, Matt Sharp and Cody Venzke.

"This Republican obsession with gender identity is frightening to me," she said. "It really, really is. Time and time again, the Republican majority has chosen to promote bigotry, fear mongering and marginalization of vulnerable students under the guise of parental rights instead of prioritizing issues that would help families, students and schools."

Grijalva said Democrats stand for parental rights and for the "rights of teachers to do their jobs without fear of being forced to violate the trust of students, and we stand for the idea that education should be about nurturing the whole child, not creating political distractions."

Rep. John Mannion, a school teacher of nearly 30 years, compared schools' transparency in 2025 with when he first began teaching in the 1990s. "We have greater access to teachers, school administrators and school board members than ever before. Parents can and are more involved than ever before."

Rep. Kevin Kiley countered, saying that examples of of schools concealing students changing their genders "are increasingly common."

"Parents are concerned not only that information is being kept from them about their decisions but that the school might be playing a role in influencing those decisions," he said.

Related topics