Parents Rights in Public Education Explained
There’s been a lot of talk about Parents Rights in the lead up to our school board election. Here’s the thing - in California we are lucky to have a robust set of rights already when it comes to our kids’ education.
In fact, it’s the law! Parents’ rights are outlined in California Education Code.
We are legally permitted to keep influence and monitor our kids’ education in a lot of ways - including:
• Visiting a school for classroom observation
• Participating in parent-teacher conferences
• Volunteering
• Monitoring student attendance
• Receiving student testing results
• Determining school selection
• Ensuring safe school environments
• Reviewing curriculum
• Monitoring their student’s academic progress
• Having access to their students’ records
• Helping to establish and review standards
• Participating in the development of school rules
• Being informed about psychological testing
• Participating in councils and committees
• Contributing to policy development
In Glendora, we’ve found that our teachers go above and beyond to ensure that we can partner in our children’s’ education by offering some helpful options.:
1. Back to School nights when teachers introduce themselves and preview for parents what they will be teaching that year
2. Online access accounts in which parents can view every syllabus and follow along with assignments that have been assigned
3. And this one is of concern to a lot of folks out there – Sex education!
Parents can preview the 5th grade puberty education and the 7th and 9th grade sex education before their children see it. And parents and can opt out of all or part of the curriculum. No parent is ever forced into exposing their children to this information. However, it is CA law that this curriculum is required to be taught in public schools, but parents can always opt-out. You can learn all about how this is handled in Glendora by watching this short video (CLICK TO WATCH).
Here’s the thing: Short of video streaming classrooms or writing the teacher’s syllabus, parents are already able to personally observe what happens in the classroom and have daily access to what their kids are learning.
When school board candidates, like those endorsed by Save Glendora Schools, talk about increasing parents’ rights, we’re curious what specific additional measures, specifically, they’d like to see?
Are they really talking about parents’ rights? Or, are they talking about distrusting teachers and censorship?
Source: CA Department of Education
