Introduction
One hundred years ago, in Pierce vs. Society of Sisters (1925), the United States Supreme Court issued a landmark decision affirming parents’ rights to send their child to a private school.
Today few parents know the significance of that decision. In brief, the Court held in Pierce that parents have the right to direct the education of their child. They also have the constitutional right to send their child to a school other than the state-directed public school. This affirmation helped shape the three-part system of school choice — charter, private, and home school — that defines today’s education landscape.
Simply stated, Pierce intensified the debate over the question of who — parents or the government — should shape the values and beliefs of children. One of the decision’s lasting legacies was a compelling phrase: “The child is not the mere creature of the state.” Conservatives champion this assertion and reason that, since children are born to parents, not the state, parents have a natural right to oversee the education of their children. Progressives continue to advocate for a more active role by the state in educating and instilling their social values in children — even if they contradict parental values.
Amid those tensions, school boards and parents are battling over many divisive issues, such as teaching controversial curricula, giving parents access to instructional materials, allowing biological males to be in girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms and to compete on girls’ sports teams, changing children’s pronouns, and instructing young children in sexual orientation and gender identity. These issues have split classrooms and communities, filled school board meetings, energized activists, and galvanized parents.
In 2023, the General Assembly passed the Parents’ Bill of Rights over Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto. The law buttresses parents’ rights to direct their child’s upbringing, education, and health care. Specifically, it gives parents a central role in determining access to student data, allows them to secure for their child a medical or religious exemption from immunization requirements, requires schools to provide a guide for parents to understand and aid their child’s academic progress, and requires school officials to respond more quickly to parental requests for information. Under the law, parents also have the right to withhold consent for their child’s participation in reproductive health or safety programs.
The Parents’ Bill of Rights (PBR) is credited with going farther than most other parental rights legislation. It requires schools to notify parents if a child requests to be called by a different name or pronoun. The law also prohibits instruction related to sexual orientation or gender identity prior to the fifth grade and requires parental consent for medical treatment of children.
Even so, the PBR has by no means fully secured parents’ rights. Enforcement has been uneven, and a number of districts have shown resistance to enforcing some of the law’s more controversial provisions. It also fails to address the longstanding problem of academic transparency, leaving parents still frustrated with the lack of effective access to instructional and supplemental materials used in the classroom.
Also, even though the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (DPI) collects data on the impact of teachers on students and their learning environment in the Education Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS), no data on the individual quality of teachers are made available for parents to review. Only school-level performance data are currently available to parents.
Nevertheless, the Parents’ Bill of Rights has led to stronger protection of parental rights in other areas. In 2025, the General Assembly passed the Parents Protection Act, which protects parents from petitions of child abuse or neglect based on “[r]aising … or referring to a juvenile consistent with the juvenile’s biological sex” (in other words, parents’ refusal to support a child’s gender transition could not be investigated as abuse or neglect). In addition, the legislature also passed House Bill 612, which expanded this protection to foster parents and caretakers. Among other things the bill also required cities and counties to require criminal history record checks for any position that requires an employee to work with children in any capacity.
The Court’s thunderous declaration in Pierce that “the child is not a mere creature of the state” has encouraged parents, led to expanded educational opportunities, and helped make society better and more just. Such efforts enrich all individuals, families, and society. They also underscore why the fight for parents’ rights will continue.
Key Facts
- Parental rights have been well established in our history, law, and civilization. As the United States Supreme Court recognized in Wisconsin v. Yoder in 1972, “The history and culture of Western civilization reflect a strong tradition of parental concern for the nurture and upbringing of their children. The primary role of the parents in the upbringing of their children is now established beyond debate as an enduring American tradition.”
- Parental rights are not absolute, however. They can be lost if it’s determined parental actions are not in the best interests of the child, such as by child abuse or neglect, failure to pay child support, abandonment, or incarceration.
- According to the “Parent Rights to Know Toolkit” from DPI, parents have the right to inspect all instructional materials, though it does not include academic tests or assessments. To review instructional materials, parents must make a request in writing to the school principal, who will schedule a mutually agreed upon time to review the materials. School officials should make every effort to schedule all meetings no later than 10 business days from the date of the request, according to the toolkit.
- Also included in the toolkit are the rights to be informed about the qualifications and licensing criteria of teachers and to know about the child’s level of academic achievement and growth on state assessments.
- Parents also have the right to know about student participation in any assessments mandated by the state, about the subject matter involved, the purpose of the assessment, and how results will be disseminated.
- North Carolina statutes speak to the state’s legal obligations to respect parental rights. One of the best ways to do so is with the Parent Advisory Commission (PAC). Originally conceived by former State Superintendent Catherine Truitt, PAC can be an effective way to institutionalize two-way communication between school officials and parents and ensure parents have a mechanism for being heard.
Recommendations
1. Strengthen access to classroom and instructional materials.
Although under the PBR, parents are allowed to inspect instructional materials, the law lacks specificity. Too often school administrators make the process of reviewing textbooks or classroom materials time-consuming and arduous. To ensure parents’ rights are better respected, teachers should be required to post to their school’s website all syllabi, instructional materials, and supplemental resource used in classes, preferably prior to their use but no later than 10 days afterwards.
2. Establish parental right to choose a child’s education.
Parental Rights in North Carolina include the right to direct the education and moral or religious upbringing of his or her child. While laudable, such statements ignore the reality of a system that traps too many children in schools and systems that fail children academically, socially and morally. Legislation — or a state constitutional amendment — should recognize that not only does a parent have a right to direct how and where a child is educated but a parent also has a right to choose the educational option they believe best suits the child’s needs and abilities.
3. Give parents the right to review data on the quality of individual teachers.
Teacher quality is an important component to boosting student achievement. Give parents the ability to review EVAAS data to help assess teacher quality.
4. Resurrect Parent Advisory Commission.
Efforts by the Department of Public Instruction to help parents understand testing, academic progress and encourage parental involvement in education — often prompted by legislation — have been both welcome and helpful. Reinvigorating former State Superintendent Catherine Truitt’s plan for a Parent Advisory Commission would be another step to institutionalize these efforts. The new commission can help ensure parents have a voice in how their children are educated. It can also ensure that school leaders receive input not only from traditional public school parents, but also from those parents whose children are enrolled in charter, private, and home schools, which are growing education sectors that have ever-greater impact on public schools.
