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School board directors and parents sued Washington state Thursday to block a Democrat-backed law overhauling rights for public school students and their parents.
The policy has become a flashpoint in the national debate over gender inclusivity and diversity, equity and inclusion in schools. A political group has a separate push underway to get it overturned through the legislative process or at the ballot box.
This week’s lawsuit, filed in Thurston County Superior Court, argues House Bill 1296 violates state and U.S. constitutional rights guaranteeing the free exercise of religion and ensuring parents can raise their children without state interference.
The parents and school board members are represented by the Citizen Action Defense Fund and Joel Ard, a Washington lawyer who has challenged Democratic-backed policies and represented the state Republican Party.
The debate over House Bill 1296 was one of the most contentious of this year’s legislative session in Olympia. Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson signed the law in May.
Republicans argued that it undermines Initiative 2081, which lawmakers passed last year.
The earlier initiative enshrined certain rights for parents of public school children, specifically around issues like reviewing classroom materials, obtaining medical records, and opting children out of assignments involving questions about their sexual experiences or their family’s religious beliefs.
Let’s Go Washington, the group that spearheaded Initiative 2081, is collecting signatures to get a measure before lawmakers next year that would repeal this year’s rewrite. If the group is successful, and lawmakers don’t approve it, this new measure could end up before voters in 2026.
Republicans and other critics of this year’s law argued that it undermined last year’s initiative.
Democrats countered that changes were necessary to protect vulnerable children.
One of the most significant changes removed parental access to their children’s school-based medical records. The complaint claims these revisions violate the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, known as FERPA.
Other changes include pushing back the deadline for parents to receive copies of their child’s school records from 10 days to 45 days.
One of the plaintiffs, Gabriel Galbraith, is a Kennewick School Board member. In March, the board pleaded with the Trump administration to force the state to comply with the president’s executive order seeking to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.
“We’re being told not to share information that parents have a right to know,” Galbraith, who is up for reelection next month, said in a statement Thursday. “That’s not education — that’s state interference in the family.”
The more than half a dozen other plaintiffs include school board members from Lynden, Darrington, Woodland and Deer Park, and parents from Olympia and Tumwater.
One parent reported taking her son out of Olympia public schools because she couldn’t opt him out of instruction about gender identity.
The state Legislature, Ferguson, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and state Superintendent Chris Reykdal are named as defendants in the lawsuit.
A spokesperson for Reykdal said the agency is reviewing the complaint.
“OSPI is charged with implementing, upholding, and enforcing the law and will continue to do so unless or until the law changes,” spokesperson Katy Payne said in an email.
The lawsuit also argues the law violates the state constitution’s “single subject” rule as the legislation deals with both parental and student rights.
A spokesperson for state Attorney General Nick Brown said Thursday his office hadn’t reviewed the filing yet.
Washington State Standard is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Washington State Standard maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Bill Lucia for questions: info@washingtonstatestandard.com.
I don’t understand how anyone with children can support the democrat stand on these issues! The government has no business if how we raise our family, gender identity is not the responsibility of the state. Trans athletes do not belong on any team other than that of their biological gender. If you stand up to pee you play with the boys! Pretty simple fergie!
I agree completely. Government needs to stay out of the family business. It was not too long back when my kids went to school, us parents were encouraged to sit in on our kids class to see what was being taught. That was in the 80’s. How low have we gone. Now they do not want them in at all.
Exactly Goverment has no business getting into family business. They are ignorant in that regard.
If it were that black and white, there would be no need for a law suit. These issues are complicated because everyone pays for public school, the schools must legally meet the educational needs of all students. Wether you are comfortable with it or not, social/emotional education is very much part of child development and is an appropriate portion of curriculum at all grade levels. The social contexts our kids live in has to be a part of that curriculum so it’s relevant to our learners. That being said, parents should always have the right to know explicitly what curriculum their children are being exposed to, with non-judgemental options to opt out. —On the point of transgender kids participating in female sports, that has no justification for me. What a child identifies with or chooses to be or feels most aligned to etc. has zero to do with the anatomic fact that a male athlete has a physical advantage over a female athlete, period. Where is the equity in that??
Wait… I read the above opinions to claim government has no business in how we raise our families. I think that means parents of children of any sex or gender identification could make the same claim.
I disagree.
Government is involved in our families: DUI and seat belt laws, food safety, electrical codes for our homes, churches, schools, and special education requirements, to name a few.
To my point, the very small number of trans kids takes up a very small space in society for a very big reason- genetics. No need to blow out of proportion, simply let them be included. The genie is out of the bottle thus kids should know the real reason for pregnancy as well as genetic diversity involved before birth.
When it was discovered I have a genetic defect I understood that applies to a wide array of differences.
It is always a difficulty when governing, to find the balance of what and whom to protect and from whom and what, so slow and steady with tweaks as we go, seems prudent while not being prudish.
I don’t think that is the main point. It is more about what parents have a say in what their kids are taught. When my kids were in school, us parents were encouraged to sit in class to see what they were being taught, now it is unthinkable. Elementary children should not be taught sexual habits of the gay community, let them learn that in high school, same about learning of transgender. We have a transgender in our family, he waited until he was in his 20’s to commit to transitioning. He doesn’t recommend all those chemicals going into a growing body. If trans still have their male parts they should not be allowed in girls bathrooms etc. They can be included just not in the bathroom and locker rooms.
No elementary children are “taught sexual habits of the gay community” in Edmonds. That is fear-mongering and untruthful. I never expected to see so much xenophobia and hatefulness in MyEdmondsNews comments section (although I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised…). The effort to overturn House Bill 1296 for “parent’s rights” is part of the larger Anti-LGBTQ activist agenda being led by christian conservatives throughout the U.S.
This is more of a 80/20 issue. Many, many democrats want parental rights. It is a small minority of the people that want government to have say over parental roles and obligations to care for their own life-long offspring. Most people love their children and know how to care and provide for them better than the government and schools.
It’s not Republican vs Democrat.
You heard the saying “Squeaky wheel gets the grease”? That small minority of Democrats that have no problem with Government deciding what is taught our kids are being heard much more than those who are concerned about Gov role in education.
This article is truly disappointing in that it makes no effort to present the reasoning behind the current law, and what the law actually does.
There has to be away to protect gay and trans kids from abusive parents. Teachers, doctors, school nurses, and coaches can sometimes be trusted allies kids need when kids might face rejection and abuse at home. It’s important for vulnerable kids to have role models who will keep their confidences.
Jeff, there have been numerous documented cases of abusive teachers and coaches. Out of curiosity, are you a parent? Would you be willing to defer your parental rights, responsibilities, and decisions to the gym coach?
The Democrats have truly lost their way on this matter. As a lifelong voter on the left – it seems we have been manipulated by Trans Activists to deprioritize the actual mental and physical safety of children to promote the non-verifiable and subjective experience of Trans ID. This group has led to dangerous medicalization of confused kids interfering with their natural physical, mental, emotional development before they ACTUALLY know who they are by living into adulthood in their natural bodies. “Gender ID confusion ” is a symptomatic of a wide variety of issues – trauma, SA, peer pressure, autism, mental illness etc – that need to be addressed and stabilized/processed before it is psychologically safe or successful to pursue such a massive ID change. Men and women are NOT interchangeable – and pushing that reality is nonsense. If people want to do this as adults- that is their own choice – but kids do not have the knowledge base or emotional capacity to understand the full consequences of transitioning until they are adults. Otherwise – why don’t we allow them to drink, smoke, or get tattoos?
Brian, Vulnerable kids need protection from anyone who is abusive. That includes abusive teachers, coaches, parents, relatives, clergy, or anyone else who abuses them
The issue is protecting vulnerable kids from abuse, not giving anyone, including parents, the authority to abuse them. End of story.
Jeff, that’s a false choice—nobody in this world supports children being abused. As a non-parent, it seems you might not fully understand the situation. Allowing schools or other third parties to make medical decisions, absent from the parents, should be a matter for the courts, not something left to a school’s math teacher.