Empower Parents to Protect Their Kids Act of 2023
This bill prohibits an elementary or secondary school from receiving federal funds unless the school complies with specified requirements related to parental consent and student gender identity.
Among other requirements, school employees may not withhold information from parents about a minor student's gender transition or gender identity. The Department of Justice or a parent or guardian may bring a civil action against a school for violations.
[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3462 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 3462
To require elementary schools and secondary schools that receive
Federal funds to obtain parental consent before facilitating a child's
gender transition in any form, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 18, 2023
Mr. Banks (for himself, Mrs. Miller of Illinois, Mr. Gosar, Mr.
Grothman, Mr. Babin, Mr. Duncan, and Mr. LaMalfa) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and
the Workforce
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require elementary schools and secondary schools that receive
Federal funds to obtain parental consent before facilitating a child's
gender transition in any form, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Empower Parents to Protect Their
Kids Act of 2023''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) School districts across the country are violating
parental and familial rights by encouraging or instructing
staff to deceive or withhold information from parents if their
child expresses confusion about their gender and is seeking to
``transition''. Without parental knowledge or consent, schools
are facilitating ``social gender transitions'' by changing the
names and pronouns of children in school, or even allowing
children to change which sex-segregated facilities they use,
such as rest rooms, locker rooms, and dormitories or other
housing for overnight field trips.
(2) Powerful teachers unions and activist organizations are
pressuring more schools to adopt policies to enable and
encourage children, of any age, to change their ``gender
identity'' at school without parental notice or consent.
(3) Contrary to the unfounded assertions of activists,
``socially transitioning'' a child is not an evidence-based
practice and it is not a neutral or uncontroversial decision.
This practice is an experimental social and psychological
intervention that has immediate effects on a child's psychology
and a high likelihood of changing the life path of a child. A
``social gender transition'' may make it more difficult for a
child to reverse course later on, thereby increasing the
likelihood that the child will continue on to a ``medical
transition'', resulting in life-changing, irreversible
consequences.
(4) Any policies that attempt to circumvent parental
authority are a violation of parents' constitutionally
protected rights to direct the care, custody, and upbringing of
their children as recognized by the Supreme Court. Further,
policies that withhold information from parents or ask children
about intimate details of their family life violate Federal
statutes designed to uphold a parent's rights and duties in
education. School districts implementing such policies are
misrepresenting or entirely ignoring these statutes and
constitutional protections.
(5) Schools should never be allowed to intrude on family
life by misleading or excluding parents and confusing children.
SEC. 3. REQUIREMENT OF PARENTAL CONSENT.
(a) In General.--No Federal funds shall be made available to any
elementary school or secondary school unless the elementary school or
secondary school, with respect to students enrolled at the school who
have not yet reached 18 years of age, complies with each of the
following requirements:
(1) School employees do not proceed with any accommodation
intended to affirm a student's purported ``gender identity'',
where the student's purported ``gender identity'' is
incongruous with the student's biological sex, or any action to
facilitate a ``gender transition'', including referral or
recommendation to any third-party medical provider, unless the
employees have received express parental consent to do so.
(2) School employees do not facilitate, encourage, or
coerce students to withhold information from their parents
regarding the student's ``gender transition'' or the student's
purported ``gender identity'', where the student's purported
``gender identity'' is incongruous with the student's
biological sex.
(3) School employees do not withhold or hide information
from parents about a student's desired ``gender transition'' or
a student's purported ``gender identity'', where the student's
purported ``gender identity'' is incongruous with the student's
biological sex.
(4) School employees do not encourage, pressure, or coerce
the parents of students, or students themselves, to proceed
with any treatment or intervention to affirm the student's
purported ``gender identity'', where that ``gender identity''
is incongruous with the student's biological sex.
(b) Rules of Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be
construed--
(1) to prevent a school employee from contacting
appropriate legal authorities about an imminent threat to a
student's physical safety in the event that the school employee
knows or has a reasonable suspicion that the student is at risk
of physical abuse, as defined in section 1169 of title 18,
United States Code; or
(2) to deprive any parent of the right to be involved in a
child's actions or discussions about gender transition, without
the due process of law.
(c) Ensuring Compliance.--The head of each Federal agency shall
require each application for Federal assistance submitted by a State
educational agency or local educational agency to the head of such
Federal agency--
(1) to describe the steps that each elementary school and
secondary school served by the State educational agency or
local educational agency proposes to take to ensure compliance
with the requirements under this section and how these steps
preserve and protect the authority of the family; and
(2) to ensure that--
(A) a copy of the written policy that each
elementary school and secondary school served by the
State educational agency or local educational agency
has to ensure compliance with the requirements under
this section is provided to the head of such Federal
agency and to the families of enrolled students; and
(B) each such policy is clearly and publicly posted
on the website of the school.
(d) Civil Action for Certain Violations.--
(1) In general.--A qualified party may, in a civil action,
obtain appropriate relief with regard to a designated
violation.
(2) Administrative remedies not required.--An action under
this section may be commenced, and relief may be granted,
without regard to whether the party commencing the action has
sought or exhausted any available administrative remedy.
(3) Defendants in actions under this section may include
governmental entities as well as others.--An action under this
section may be brought against any elementary school or
secondary school receiving Federal financial assistance or any
governmental entity assisting an elementary school or secondary
school.
(4) Nature of relief.--In an action under this section, the
court shall grant--
(A) all appropriate relief, including injunctive
relief and declaratory relief;
(B) to a prevailing plaintiff, reasonable
attorneys' fees and litigation costs; and
(C) payment for treatments or therapy needed to
repair harm to the child perpetuated by pursuit of
``gender transition'' determined necessary by the
parent and the child's medical providers.
(5) Attorneys fees for defendant.--If a defendant in a
civil action under this subsection prevails and the court finds
that the plaintiff's suit was frivolous, the court shall award
a reasonable attorney's fee in favor of the defendant against
the plaintiff.
(e) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Biological sex.--The term ``biological sex'' means the
biological indication of male and female as determined by
reproductive potential or capacity, such as sex chromosomes,
naturally occurring sex hormones, gonads, and nonambiguous
internal and external genitalia present at birth, without
regard to a person's psychological, chosen, or subjective
experience of gender.
(2) Designated violation.--The term ``designated
violation'' means an actual or threatened violation of this
section.
(3) ESEA.--The terms ``elementary school'' and ``secondary
school'' have the meanings given the terms in section 8101 of
the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C.
7801).
(4) Gender identity.--The term ``gender identity'' means a
person's self-perception of their gender or claimed gender,
regardless of the person's biological sex.
(5) Gender transition.--
(A) In general.--The term ``gender transition''
includes both medical transition and social transition.
(B) Medical transition.--The term ``medical
transition'' means any medical, hormonal, or surgical
intervention undertaken to alter the body of a person
in order to assert an identity incongruent with
biological sex or undertaken to create or facilitate
the development of physiological or anatomical
characteristics that resemble a sex different from the
person's biological sex.
(C) Social transition.--The term ``social
transition'' means any action taken to affirm a
person's asserted ``gender identity'' that is in
contradiction to the person's biological sex, including
but not limited to decisions pertaining to the use of
sex-specific facilities and accommodations,
participation in sex-segregated sports or activities,
pronoun and name usage, boarding, sleeping and travel
arrangements for field trips (including overnight
trips), and dress code guidelines.
(6) Governmental entity.--The term ``governmental entity''
means a school district, a local educational agency, a school
board, or any agency or other governmental unit or subdivision
of a State responsible for education, or of such a local
government.
(7) Qualified party.--The term ``qualified party'' means--
(A) the Attorney General of the United States; or
(B) any parent or legal guardian adversely affected
by the designated violation.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
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