25-03-2025
‘Broad' Indiana bill protecting parents' rights from DCS, schools advances to House floor
A bill headed to the Indiana House floor seeks to codify that parents' "fundamental right" to make decisions about their children's care. (Getty Images)
Supporters of a controversial parental rights bill argued Monday that schools and state agencies should default to parents as the primary decision-makers for their children, and that Hoosier families need recourse when they believe their 'authoritative' rights have been violated.
Up for debate in the House Judiciary Committee was Senate Bill 143 — a third attempt by Sen. Liz Brown, R-Fort Wayne, to codify that governmental entities 'may not substantially burden a parent's fundamental right' to direct the 'upbringing, religious instruction, education or health care' of a child unless it has a 'compelling interest.'
Brown said the bill is a response to parents whose rights have been violated by government entities — notably their children's public schools and the Department of Child Services (DCS). Several cases described in committee testimony involved cases in which DCS allegedly misidentified situations as abuse.
'What has happened is, when some DCS workers and people don't like the faith-based policies, the beliefs of some parents, they use those issues to take the child away. That's not how it's supposed to work,' Brown said Monday. 'Parents can take care of their children. They can receive medical advice, and they don't need DCS to take the child out of the home to administer that medical advice or that medical care that's happening today.'
The House committee approved the bill 9-3 along party lines, sending it to the full chamber.
Although 'it's not perfect,' Brown called the bill 'a first step' to 'at least make our agencies understand how important it is to consider the parents — how the parents are the primary caregivers — and we need to look to them first, instead of last, when we look at what we're going to do in the future.'
Critics called the legislation 'too broad,' however. Among the opponents, Chris Daley with the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana worried that Brown's bill could create new liability for government employees and could hurt the privacy rights of LGBTQ+ youth, specifically.
But some parental rights advocates were additionally opposed, saying the proposal 'does not go far enough.'
Cindi Hajicek, executive director Purple for Parents United, maintained that the current bill actually empowers governmental entities to interfere with a child's upbringing — as long as the state can persuade a court that a compelling interest justifies those actions.
'This bill doesn't secure parental rights,' Hajicek said. 'It just tells the government exactly what it has to do to restrict them. It doesn't tell them no — it just tells them how.'
Provisions in the Senate bill would forbid government entities from denying parents access to certain information about their children, and from 'advising, directing or coercing' a child to withhold that information from parents. Parents could bring legal action against governmental entities for violations, and courts would have to apply the highest level of legal scrutiny to those challenges.
The bill makes an exception for protecting the health and safety of a child, and for active criminal law enforcement investigations involving a parent. Parents also wouldn't be allowed to decide that their children could access procedures that are banned in Indiana, such as abortion, gender-affirming care or female genital mutilation, Brown said.
What has happened is, when some DCS workers and people don't like the faith-based policies, the beliefs of some parents, they use those issues to take the child away. That's not how it's supposed to work.
– Sen. Liz Brown, R-Fort Wayne
'School systems are keeping secrets. DCS employees are keeping secrets. Some of our health care workers are keeping secrets from our parents,' Brown said.
She pointed to a local news article in which a teacher 'was very proud to show how supportive they were of their students, and detailed how they helped a student — a male — buy a dress for the prom, and kept it a secret … from the parents.'
'I'm glad they're supporting our students, but I'm not really sure that's how we want our schools to proceed,' Brown concluded.
Numerous parents recalled their own experiences before the House panel. One parent, Clint Thompson, described how his twins were removed from his family's home based on a misdiagnosed leg fracture.
Thompson said DCS staff took custody of the two children — plus his five-year-old at home — without providing an opportunity for him or his wife 'to be heard at all,' and said that both parents were denied access to the children's medical records during the months-long ordeal.
Ultimately, the original medical diagnosis was proven incorrect. Bruising on the child's daughter's back 'was likely due to the after effects of RSV or low liver enzymes,' not parental neglect or abuse.
'Had our children not been taken out of our home due to a hospital diagnosis that ended up being wrong … the physical and emotional development of our infants would be stronger, and our five-year-old son would never have experienced emotional trauma from being ripped away from his parents,' Thompson explained. 'My wife and myself hope that no other family will have to go through what we went through just last year. And if they do, the state should support those families who have been wronged.'
Also approved Monday by the House Judiciary Committee was a bill that seeks to expedite the removal of 'squatters' who occupy properties without permission. Senate Bill 157, authored by Sen. Mike Gaskill, R-Pendleton, would require law enforcement to more quickly remove violators — within 48 hours of a property owner's affidavit — unless 'credible evidence' proves otherwise. The bill moved to the House floor in a 9-3 vote, along party lines.
Another parent, Yvonne Martinez Koch, said DCS was called after she didn't follow recommendations from her daughter's school for psychiatric care.
Koch said school administrators pressured her to medicate her child for misdiagnosed mental health issues, which caused additional health problems.
'When we finally secured an independent neuropsych evaluation, the truth became clear: our daughter was not suffering from mental illness. She had autism, a condition that was completely overlooked and ignored and dismissed by the schools,' Koch said.
Dawn Marie White, attorney for Indiana parents Grant and Myranda Phillips, testified that the couple temporarily lost custody of their two children for nearly a year, and were kept from their children's medical records, after DCS incorrectly alleged abuse of their two-month-old infant.
The child was later found to be suffering from a previously undiagnosed connective tissue disorder, and a judge eventually dismissed the case. A lawsuit lodged by the family is still pending.
'This bill still allows courts to make the determination of limiting or denying parents access when it's appropriate. The court should be making these decisions, not a governmental agency that is, by definition, adversarial to parents,' White said. 'It allows good Hoosier parents to have an opportunity and right to address when governmental agencies overstep. Please don't allow governmental agencies engaged in adversarial positions to restrict parents' access without appropriate oversight. It is an unfair advantage and cruel tactic that has lasting impacts on everyone in the family.'
Similar laws have passed in other states to prevent school districts from affirming transgender students. A law passed by the Indiana General Assembly in 2023 already mandates Hoosier schools to report to parents when a student requests name or pronoun changes. Gender-affirming care for transgender minors was also outlawed in Indiana during the 2023 session.
'Parents should be regarded by the state of Indiana as the ultimate decision-makers of what's best for their children,' said Jordan Carpenter, legal counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, which has helped draft related bill language in other states. 'No one knows a child's needs better than that child's parents who have the God-given right and responsibility to make decisions in the child's best interest without undue government interference.'
DCS did not testify on the bill. Committee chairman Rep. Chris Jeter, R-Fishers, said he couldn't speak on behalf of the agency or comment on its position.
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