119-s2702

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2702 Introduced in Senate

    (IS) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 S. 2702

To require local educational agencies, State educational agencies, and 
other governmental education entities to respect the rights of parents 
 regarding gender transition, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

 September 3, 2025

 Mr. Banks introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
 referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

 A BILL

To require local educational agencies, State educational agencies, and 
other governmental education entities to respect the rights of parents 
 regarding gender transition, 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 2025''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

 Congress finds the following:

    (1) School districts across the country have violated 
 parental and familial rights by encouraging or instructing 
 staff to deceive or withhold information from parents if their 
 child expresses discomfort with their sex or is seeking to 
 socially or physically adopt an identity that is incongruent 
 with their sex. Without parental knowledge or consent, schools 
 have changed the names and pronouns of children in school, 
 provided or allowed students to bring clothes typically worn by 
 the opposite sex for students to change into once they arrive 
 at school, and even allowed 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) This is often being done pursuant to a ``gender 
 transition plan'' that is nearly always kept secret from 
 parents. In fact, these school districts have kept a second set 
 of student records that are unknown to the parents. Powerful 
 teachers unions and activist organizations have pressured more 
 schools to adopt policies to enable and encourage children, of 
 any age, to adopt an ``identity'' that is incongruent with 
 their sex and be treated accordingly at school without parental 
 notice or consent.

    (3) Contrary to the unfounded assertions of activists, the 
 social aspects of adopting an identity that is incongruent with 
 an individual's sex are not neutral or uncontroversial. This is 
 experimental and has immediate effects on a child's psychology 
 and dramatically increases the statistical likelihood that a 
 child will go on to take puberty blocking or suppressing drugs 
 and wrong-sex hormones. Additionally, it makes it more 
 difficult for a child to reverse course later, thereby 
 increasing the likelihood that the child will continue the 
 surgical elements of adopting an identity that is incongruent 
 with one's sex, 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) On January 29, 2025, President Trump signed Executive 
 Order 14190 (90 Fed. Reg. 8853; relating to ending radical 
 indoctrination in K-12 schooling) to enforce the law to ensure 
 that recipients of Federal funds providing K-12 education 
 comply with all laws protecting parental rights.

    (6) Schools should never be allowed to intrude on family 
 life by misleading or excluding parents and confusing children.

SEC. 3. REQUIREMENTS OF PARENTAL CONSENT.

    (a) 

=== Definitions. ===
-In this section:

    (1) ESEA 

=== definitions. ===
-The term ``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).

    (2) Female.--The term ``female,'' when used to refer to a 
 natural person, means an individual who naturally has, had, 
 will have, or would have, but for a congenital anomaly, 
 historical accident, or intentional or unintentional 
 disruption, the reproductive system that at some point 
 produces, transports, and utilizes eggs for fertilization.

    (3) Male.--The term ``male,'' when used to refer to a 
 natural person, means an individual who naturally has, had, 
 will have, or would have, but for a congenital anomaly, 
 historical accident, or intentional or unintentional 
 disruption, the reproductive system that at some point 
 produces, transports, and utilizes sperm for fertilization.

    (4) Sex.--The term ``sex,'' when referring to the sex of an 
 individual, means to refer to either male or female, as 
 biologically determined.

    (5) Designated violation.--The term ``designated 
 violation'' means an actual or threatened violation of this 
 section.

    (6) Gender transition.--The term ``gender transition'' 
 means the process in which an individual goes from identifying 
 with or presenting a self-proclaimed identity that does not 
 correspond with or is different from his or her sex, and may be 
 accompanied with social, legal, or physical changes.

    (7) 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.

    (8) 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.

    (b) 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 ``identity'' that is 
 incongruent with the student's sex, or any action to facilitate 
 or otherwise aid and abet a minor in adopting such an identity, 
 including referral or recommendation to any third-party medical 
 provider for a gender transition procedure, 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 purported identity when it is 
 incongruent with the student's sex.

    (3) School employees do not withhold or hide information 
 from parents about a student's discomfort with their sex, their 
 desire for an identity that is incongruent with their sex, 
 their profession of an identity that is incongruent with their 
 sex, or their desire to undergo a gender transition procedure.

    (4) School employees do not encourage, pressure, or coerce 
 the parents of students, or students themselves, to proceed 
 with any intervention to affirm the student's adoption of an 
 identity that is incongruent with their sex.
            (c) 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 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.
            (d) 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.

    (e) 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 
 attorney's fees and litigation costs; and
            (C) payment for treatments or therapy to repair 
 harm to the child from pursuit of ``gender transition'' 
 determined as necessary by the parent and the child's 
 medical providers.

    (5) Attorney fees for defendant.--If a defendant in a civil 
 action under this subsection prevails and the court finds that 
 the suit brought by the plaintiff was frivolous, the court 
 shall award a reasonable attorney's fee in favor of the 
 defendant against the plaintiff.
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