Status: Governor Newsom Signed Bill Into Law 7/15/24
Q. Why do we care about AB 1955?
A. Because the bill undermines the pillars of freedom (Religious Freedom and Parental Rights) upon which the legal right to enroll children in a private school or homeschool has been established.
AB 1955 Opposition Points:
- erodes parental rights and acts as an incremental step towards separating parent from child, replacing the parent with the state. This bill deals with the issue of gender identity, but what will be next?
- takes power away from local school boards and gives it to the state by granting immunity to teachers who violate local school policies established by locally elected school boards. AB 1955 starts down a slippery slope of having the state government take over policy issues that belong in purview of local control.
- creates division between parents and their children because it allows for teachers to conceal information from the parents, thus destroying trust in the family and undermining the family structure.
- leads to confusion and causes a lack of transparency between the child and their parents. The student might not communicate effectively with their parents or understand that they have to explicitly give permission to their teacher to tell their parents about their decision.
- restricts the freedom of parents to help their children make decisions about gender identity and establishes the state as the authority on this issue. This allows the school system to influence the child without the knowledge and permission of the parents.
- opens the door to keeping secrets from parents regarding a student’s gender identity, but what will be next?
- weakens the trust parents have in the school system by refusing to be transparent to parents about their children.
- oversteps bounds of authority by allowing school teachers to make impactful decisions for the student that should be left to the student’s parents.
- forces teachers to lie to parents about the student’s gender identity, thus teachers would be put in a compromising position against their conscience.
Additional Information
What’s the difference between AB 1266 and AB 1955?
AB 1266 already allows for individual schools and elected school boards to choose what policies to adopt regarding informing parents of their student’s gender identification. AB 1955 would now require, according to Assemblymember Ward, “any school or school district” to follow these policies. This takes away the right of parents to decide what policies they want in their school district. Parents are responsible for electing the school board members who make decisions for their specific school district. This bill would take that away and instead create a blanket rule/policy that all California public schools must abide by.
Existing law states that parents’ rights supersedes that of the child’s:
U.S. District Court, S.D. California decision Mirabelli v. Olson states, “The privacy right of a child, according to FERPA, takes second place to his or her parents’ right to know.”
U.S. Supreme Court decision Parham v. J.R. states, “The law’s concept of the family rests on a presumption that parents possess what a child lacks in maturity, experience, and capacity for judgment required for making life’s difficult decisions” (https://supreme.justia.com/cases.)
U.S. Supreme Court decision Santosky v. Kramer states, “The fundamental liberty interest of natural parents in the care, custody, and management of their child does not evaporate simply because they have not been model parents or have lost temporary custody of their child to the State. Even when blood relationships are strained, parents retain a vital interest in preventing the irretrievable destruction of their family life” (https://supreme.justia.com/cases).
Action Items:
First, call your state Assembly Member and ask them to vote no on AB 1955.
Second, you can visit your Assembly Member’s district or capitol office to talk to them or their staff about this bill.
Third, and most importantly, pray. Help us defeat this bill and protect homeschooling, parental rights, and the family!