Democratic Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson signed a bill Tuesday eroding a citizen-backed initiative that had protected parents’ rights.
House Bill 1296 made heavy revisions to Initiative 2081, a bipartisan “parents’ bill of rights” signed by nearly 450,000 Washingtonians and overwhelmingly approved by the state legislature in 2024. The bill controversially separates student medical records from education records and restricts the ability of parents to access the former.
During debate over the bill in Washington’s legislature, Republican lawmakers unsuccessfully introduced amendments that would protect girls from being forced to share their locker rooms and sports teams with trans-identifying males, the Washington State Standard reported. However, accepted amendments to the bill include special protections for ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender expression, gender identity, and protections for neurodivergent individuals.
The new law’s supporters believe its changes will protect children’s safety and privacy, keeping information such as sexual orientation and gender identity from being revealed to parents, according to KOMO News.
The bill’s sponsor, Democratic Washington state Rep. Monica Jurado Stonier, said that “the young people in our schools deserve a place where they can be seen and acknowledged in their full selves and experience a full curriculum.”
“The top priority for our schools must be to ensure a safe learning environment where every student has a chance to thrive,” Ferguson said as he signed the bill.
The Washington State House Republican Caucus wrote in post to X on Tuesday that while Initiative 2081 was backed by “the will of more than 400,000 Washingtonians,” the bill Ferguson signed Tuesday “effectively overturn[s]” it.
School choice activist, Erika Donalds, wife of Republican Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, said in response to the House Bill that “parental rights are under SIEGE in Washington … Schools can now WITHHOLD info from parents even if their child is a victim of a crime committed by a teacher.”
Washington Senate Republicans voiced their concerns about Ferguson in a Tuesday press release.
State Senate Republican Leader John Braun said via the release that the 2025 regular session is partially a “bad session for our K-12 students because of the anti-parents’ rights bill that the governor signed earlier” that day, and partially because of budgeting decisions supported by Ferguson to raise taxes and to lower the percentage of federal funding going towards the public school system in Washington State.
Ferguson’s office did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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