Rewrite of parental rights law passes Washington House

Yahoo

15-04-2025

Tense floor debate in the House on Monday, April 14, 2025 about Senate Bill 5181, the bill regarding parental rights. (Photo by Jacquelyn Jimenez Romero/Washington State Standard)
Washington House lawmakers, for nearly five hours on Monday, battled through the latest round of debate in the state Legislature over parental rights.
Democrats say the bill they approved is needed to clarify parts of a citizen initiative that the Legislature passed last year and to align it with other state and federal laws. Republicans frame the effort as a strategy to gut the earlier measure, which lays out certain rights for the parents of public school students.
The bill passed on a party-line vote, 56-39. Democrats at one point invoked a rule to halt debate on amendments, which sped up proceedings but also blocked Republicans from voicing concerns.
'Not every child in this state or in this country has the benefit of parents who are loving, who are supportive, who are there for them,' said Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos, D-Seattle, who chairs the House Education Committee.
Republicans slammed the bill, at times characterizing it as one of the worst Democrats have put forward this year.
'This bill is creating a wedge, putting a wedge between parents and their children,' said Rep. Stephanie Barnard, R-Pasco. 'I feel like the schools should not operate under the premise that the parents are bad or dangerous, that type of premise, again, creates that wedge.'
House approval moves the legislation closer to becoming state law, but because the bill was amended, it must go back to the Senate before it can potentially head to the governor's desk.
Initiative 2081 was a citizen initiative that more than 400,000 residents signed onto and that was approved in last year's legislative session. It declared 15 specific rights for the parents and guardians of public school children under the age of 18.
Two bills linked to the initiative are currently in play — Senate Bill 5181, which the House approved on Monday and House Bill 1296, which was overhauled last month to deal largely with the rights of students. The Senate approved House Bill 1296 on Friday.
Some of the biggest changes Senate Bill 5181 would make to the law passed last year are around parents' access to their children's medical records, including for mental health counseling.
It would remove the rights of parents to receive prior notification when medical services are being offered to their child, except where emergency medical treatment is required. The same goes for notifications about when a school has arranged directly or indirectly for medical treatment that results in follow-up care outside normal school hours.
Democrats say some of those rights are still included in other state and federal laws but students do have privacy rights when it comes to their health care. For example, a 1985 law gives children 13 years or older the right to mental health treatment without parental consent.
The bill also removes language from the existing parental rights law that would make medical and mental health records available to a child's parents. But here again, Democratic lawmakers have suggested that parents should still have access to these types of records under other state laws.
'The medical records that are being referenced are not created in school environments,' said Rep. Monica Stonier, D-Vancouver. 'Educational records are educational records and are governed by public school policy. Health care records are health care records. Those are not created by school personnel.'
Similar to the law approved last year, the bill calls for 'immediate notification' of parents if there's an allegation of a crime committed against their child, or if their child is interrogated by police. It also adds other notifications, including when a child has been detained for involvement in criminal activity or if a school shooting occurs.
The bill specifies that schools don't have to release records to parents who are under investigation for, or charged with, child abuse or neglect.
During Monday's floor action, Republicans introduced 15 amendments, of which two were adopted.
These included ones calling for parents to receive a copy of a child's public school records within 10 business days, instead of 45 days, and to publish a notice that identifies medical services made available to students without prior consent of a parent or legal guardian.
Republicans blasted Democrats for cutting off debate. Earlier in the session, Democrats changed the House rules so they could do this with the support of a simple majority rather than two-thirds of members.
'We knew this day might come, but to see it unfold during the Parental Rights initiative — backed by nearly half a million voters — is a disgrace, ' Republican Deputy Minority Leader Rep. Chris Corry, R-Yakima, said in a statement.
Rep. Jeremie Dufault, R-Selah, said the bill 'led to the censorship of representatives of the people of Washington state who strongly supported the initiative.'
Rejected amendments included ones calling for parents to get prior notification when medical services are being offered to their child, to receive medical records, including for mental health counseling, for children under 12, and to remove the emergency clause that would allow the bill to take effect immediately and prevent it from facing a potential voter referendum.
Republicans also proposed an amendment to block transgender girls from participating in girls' sports.
'This amendment relies on two erroneous premises, the first that trans girls are not girls, not true, and the second, that boys are inherently better athletes than girls, not true,' said Rep. Sharlett Mena, D-Tacoma, before Democrats rejected the amendment.
GOP lawmakers also sought to prohibit pornographic images from instructional materials, but Democrats said certain images may be needed to teach science and health curriculum and voted this down, too.
When the Legislature passed the initiative last year, Democrats said that they would revisit the law if it created confusion.
'That's exactly what we're doing, is coming back to provide the clarity that we said needed to be done in order to make sure that the bill that we pass aligns with our current state law,' said Sen. Claire Wilson, D-Auburn, the sponsor of the Senate bill on students' rights.