Opt Out Now!

A Message from America First Legal about Parental Rights and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment:
With the beginning of the school year, we have seen public schools across the nation continue to double down with their attacks on parental rights. From social emotional learning to critical race theory to gender ideology, school officials are continuing to turn a blind eye to parents’ fundamental right to guide the health, welfare, and education of their children.
Specifically, under the guise of “protecting transgender students,” schools are enacting policies and regulations designed to deliberately keep parents out of the loop about situations related to their children’s mental, physical, and emotional health. Moreover, they are proactively and affirmatively pushing gender ideology by demanding that students fill out questionnaires and answer questions about their preferred pronouns.
This is not only a blatant violation of parents’ 14th Amendment liberty rights, but also a violation of the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment.
Therefore, America First Legal has supplemented its PPRA Toolkit with a sample Parental Rights Demand Letter Template, for parents to use on their own without the aid of legal counsel. This letter directed to school administrators includes language that makes clear parents want to fully opt-out, in advance, from “social emotional learning,” Critical Race Theory (CRT) infused lessons, and surveys or information collections on such things as “preferred pronouns,” political attitudes, and religious beliefs without prior written parental consent. It also makes clear that a school may not hide from a parent, for example, his or her child’s “gender identity transition,” referral to a third-party mental health counselor or abortion provider, or illegal drug use.
The Parental Rights Demand Letter Template can be accessed here. We encourage you to share this with your networks of parents so that they can independently exercise their legal rights and put their schools on notice that any violation of those rights could result in legal action.
Thank you and please do not hesitate to reach out with questions.
Ian Prior
Senior Advisor