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Parental Rights: You Are in Charge of Your Children’s Education and Upbringing

by Kayla Toney • 4 minutes

With the school year starting, many parents have questions regarding their religious rights and their involvement in their children’s education.

You are the first line of defense for your family. We want to provide you with some clarity and resources, so that you’re equipped and ready.

A couple of the most frequent questions are: Can I opt my children out of courses and materials that interfere with my religious beliefs? What are my rights if I don’t want my kids learning radical gender ideology at school?

This summer, the Supreme Court delivered a tremendous victory in favor of parental rights in Mahmoud v. Taylor. That decision held that as a parent you have the legal right to opt your children out of lessons in public schools that substantially interfere with your religious beliefs. That includes gender ideology—and other topics, too.

By law, most states already require schools to offer parental opt-outs from sex education in the context of a health unit. But parents deserve more, because curriculum and class discussions throughout the school day may burden parents’ right to direct the religious upbringing of their children.

Where the teaching would interfere with families’ religious beliefs, the Supreme Court decision in Mahmoud holds that schools must provide advance notice and opt-outs. Denying parents that right is unconstitutional.

And it’s important for you to know this protection applies to public education. Mahmoud clarified that as a public benefit, public education cannot be conditioned “on parents’ willingness to accept a burden on their religious exercise.”

In Mahmoud, the Court also said: the “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.”

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This precedent strengthens longstanding protections for you as a parent. In fact, the Supreme Court has consistently held for at least 100 years that the First Amendment is a “charter of rights of parents to direct the religious upbringing of their children.” There are many cases that make this clear.

According to the Court’s ruling in Wisconsin v. Yoder, the Free Exercise Clause protects parents’ freedom to direct their children’s education and to impart sincere religious beliefs to them, without government interference. What’s more, the government’s important interest in the education of children does not outweigh the fundamental rights of parents, especially “with respect to the religious upbringing of their children.”

In Pierce v. Society of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus & Mary, the Supreme Court decided that since the “child is not the mere creature of the state,” public schools must defer to “those who nurture him and direct his destiny,” parents, because they “have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.”

Bottom line, this means parents do not give up their rights when they choose to send their children to public school.

If you’re concerned that school curricula or class assignments are at odds with your religious beliefs, consider the following:

• Parents should meet with teachers and administrators before the school year and provide written requests for advance notice and opt-outs on topics where instruction would substantially interfere with their religious beliefs, including but not limited to human sexuality and gender identity instruction.

• Parents have a right to review the curriculum being presented to their own children in school.

• School administrators may not show hostility toward parents or students because of opt-out requests on certain topics.

• All parents need to state is that their request is based on their sincere religious beliefs, and that teaching on certain topics would substantially interfere with the religious upbringing of their children.

Schools are required to accommodate families’ religious beliefs regardless of whether school officials agree with or share those beliefs.

Always remember that our children do not belong to the state. You—the parent—are in charge of your children’s education and upbringing. The Constitution and decades of strong legal precedent say that you have those rights.

If you or any parent you know receive pushback from school administrators, or if you have additional questions about specific topics or school situations, please contact First Liberty and request free legal assistance.