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EXCLUSIVE: A pro-Trump legal group has released a new method for parents across the country to push back against “woke” agendas in their children’s schools and highlighted a little-understood right that parents can exercise to demand transparency.
“As the Supreme Court has repeatedly said, parents have the ultimate authority over their children’s education,” America First Legal outlined in a press release last week.
“And yet schools often ignore parents’ rights. School systems, administrators, and teachers often treat parents with contempt and disdain simply for asking what their children are learning and what values schools are promoting.”
The press release goes on to discuss the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA), which it describes as an “important” but “until now little-used tool” that can be used for “holding administrators and teachers accountable.”
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Third-grade teacher talks with students on the first day of class. (Getty)
The Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment governs parental rights over federally funded surveys or instructional materials.
America First Legal released a new template in a post on X for parents to use in order “to opt out of radical classroom instruction and woke school policies.”
The legal group explains that the letter enables parents to exercise their rights in accordance with the Supreme Court decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, where the court “held that a school district violated parents’ rights by failing to provide notice and an opportunity to opt out before exposing children to radical LGBTQ storybooks.”
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Protesters in Michigan rally against President Donald Trump’s anti-DEI policies, denouncing federal rollbacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. (Getty Images/Dominic Gwinn)
The justices decided 6-3 along ideological lines earlier this year in Mahmoud v. Taylor that parents can exclude their children from a Maryland public school system’s lessons that contain themes about homosexuality and transgenderism if they feel the material conflicts with their religious faith.
“A government burdens the religious exercise of parents when it requires them to submit their children to instruction that poses ‘a very real threat of undermining’ the religious beliefs and practices that the parents wish to instill,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority. “And a government cannot condition the benefit of free public education on parents’ acceptance of such instruction.”
The case arose from Montgomery County Public Schools incorporating books into their preschool through 12th grade language arts curriculum a few years ago that featured “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer characters,” the school district’s attorneys told the Supreme Court.
The attorneys said the school district did this as part of an effort to be “culturally responsive” and teach lessons that encourage “equity, respect, and civility.”
The Maryland parents who sued said in their petition to the high court that the school board introduced books to their elementary school students that promoted “gender transitions, Pride parades, and same-sex playground romance.”
“The Supreme Court handed a massive win to parents this summer when it ruled parents have a constitutional right to opt their children out of radical, transgender indoctrination in school,” Ian Prior, senior counsel at America First Legal, exclusively told Digital.
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The United States Supreme Court building. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
“It is now time to put that victory into action by taking affirmative steps to make sure that intransigent leftist school districts comply with the law of the land. This opt-out letter not only serves as a vehicle for parents to exercise their fundamental rights as set forth by the Supreme Court, but it puts those schools on notice that if they fail to comply, they will find themselves in court.”
Earlier this year, Digital reported that American First Legal set up a website it calls the “The Parent and Student Action Center,” which it describes as a “hub” for parents and students to gather information and share their stories.
“From sharing your story to accessing legal toolkits, open records requests, and real case examples, everything here is designed to equip parents and students with the knowledge and support to defend their rights,” the website says.
Parents across the country have been pushing back in recent years against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in favor of policies based on meritocracy and making the case that schools have become indoctrinated by far left ideology.
Last month, dozens of parental rights organizations signed onto a letter sent to all 50 states calling for top-to-bottom statewide audits of education laws and policies warning that DEI, poor hiring practices, and discrimination based on sex and gender continues to be prevalent in K-12 schools nationwide, Digital first reported.
“Schools do not raise children — parents do. This resource makes clear that schools answer to parents, not the other way around,” America First Legal President Gene Hamilton told Digital. “The Constitution protects that relationship, and we will ensure no bureaucracy or activist agenda can undermine it.”
Digital’s Ashley Oliver and Rachel del Guidice contributed to this report.
