E&W Blog

At the heart of today’s Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education hearing was a simple truth: parents have a fundamental right to know what is happening in their children’s schools.

Subcommittee Chairman Kevin Kiley (R-CA) kicked off the hearing by highlighting how this issue isn’t controversial and has long garnished bipartisan support. “FERPA and PPRA were enacted decades ago with strong bipartisan support because Members of both parties believed in the central role of parental engagement when it comes to a child’s education and well-being. I hope through this hearing we can return to that consensus—recognizing that transparency and partnership with parents are essential,” he stated.
 
FERPA and PPRA were enacted with bipartisan support. These laws are not optional. But somehow, despite broad agreement, parents are still shut out. That is wrong.


Chairman Tim Walberg (R-MI) questioned the notion that a child’s right to privacy overrides a parent’s right to information about his or her child. “The courts have routinely rejected [this] interpretation [of the law]. In one case, they specifically noted that under FERPA a child’s right to privacy is secondary to a parent’s right to know,” explained Mr. Matt Sharp, Senior Counsel and Director of the Center for Public Policy, Alliance Defending Freedom. “[This] recognizes that…children are best served when their parents are their primary educators,” he told Chairman Walberg and the Subcommittee.
 
Similarly, Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT) emphasized the need for parents and teachers to work together for students to succeed. “The teachers aren’t the parents. Together, they worked as a team… We have to start with that premise.” Mrs. Deborah Figliola, Retired Secondary Special Education and English School Teacher at Harrisonburg City Public Schools, echoed that sentiment: “Educators need to partner with parents… I know how important it is for educators and parents to work together because I’ve seen special education students meet their potential. The ones that have their parents involved have the greatest possibility of meeting their potential. That applies to all kids, not [just] special education students.”


Democrats used this hearing to defend the status quo. Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) argued that, “If we want to safeguard student privacy, we can start by keeping the agency responsible for students’ privacy intact. The Department of Education holds states and districts accountable to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, or PPRA. If other agencies are administering the Department of Education’s programs, students and families may lose those protections.” Yet Democrats must have forgotten: while FERPA and PPRA were signed into law in 1974, the Department of Education wasn’t even established until 1979.


And while Democrats argued that parents already have rights under these laws, witnesses told Republican Members that these rights are being undermined or ignored. In an exchange with Rep. James Moylan (R-GU), Mrs. Laura Powell, Founder and President of Californians for Good Governance, underscored how parents are being cut out of their kids’ education. She told Rep. Moylan that, “[W]hen you see parents actually being cut out, that is actually a very radical—extreme—move that I see happening in schools. Despite some comments where former educators say this isn’t happening in schools, respectfully I think perhaps they haven’t been paying attention.”


Mrs. Powell also told Rep. Mark Harris (R-NC) that state officials in her home state of California are issuing policies that undermine parents’ right to know what happens to their child in school. “Yes, they are. In California, for sure they are… the California Department of Education used [A.B. 2066] to issue guidance to all the school districts in the state, telling them that they were legally obligated to keep gender identity secret from parents.”
 
Bottom line: Republicans believe empowering families leads to better outcomes for students and communities. Respecting parental rights strengthens—not weakens—public education while improving student success.