House education committee adopts Chavez-DeRemer amendments to Parents Bill of Rights

(Update: Markup of bill)

WASHINGTON (KTVZ) – The House Committee on Education and the Workforce held a markup Wednesday on the Parents Bill of Rights.

Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (OR-05), a cosponsor of the proposal, offered two amendments to provide clarity for parents and to set teachers up for success. Both amendments were adopted by the committee and are now included in the bill, her office said in a news release.

“I promised Oregonians that I would stand up for parents, and I’m keeping that promise. My commonsense amendments will help parents better understand the priorities of their children’s schools by bringing much-needed clarity to school spending decisions and simplifying the curriculum feedback process. I want to thank my colleagues for supporting these pragmatic improvements to the Parents Bill of Rights,” Chavez-DeRemer said.

Budget Fact Sheet

One of the five core principles in the Parents Bill of Rights is bringing transparency to school budgets and spending decisions.

As written, the Parents Bill of Rights requires schools to publish budgets for parents to access and review. However, these budgets are often hundreds of pages long.

Chavez-DeRemer’s amendment, which received bipartisan support, seeks to save parents time by requiring schools to release simplified fact sheets that break down their budgets in easy-to-understand terms. Schools would also still be required to publish full budgets.

Chavez-DeRemer has worked with Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (NC-05) to include clarifying report language to ensure administrators – not teachers – are responsible for publishing these documents. Full text of the amendment is available here.

Comment Period

Another one of the five core principles in the Parents Bill of Rights is ensuring parents know what their children are being taught.

As written, the Parents Bill of Rights allows parents to inspect what is being taught in their children’s classrooms. However, the bill currently contains no structure explaining how and when inspection requests can be submitted, so teachers could end up spending more time fulfilling requests and less time engaging with students.

Chavez-DeRemer’s amendment seeks to lower the burden on teachers and set them up for success by establishing a specific and consistent timeframe for review – bringing much-needed order and stability to the process. Full text of the amendment is available here.

The five core principles of the Parents Bill of Rights are as follows:

• Parents have the right to know what their children are being taught.
• Parents have the right to be heard.
• Parents have the right to see the school’s budget and spending.
• Parents have the right to protect their child’s privacy.
• Parents have the right to keep their children safe.

The proposal, officially introduced in the House last week, seeks to promote children’s well-being and success by empowering parents and ensuring they have a seat at the table in their child’s education, according to an earlier news release from Chavez-DeRemer.

“As a mother of two, I know that no one understands a child’s interests and needs better than their parents. Instead of heavy-handed mandates that shut parents out of the classroom, we need the Parents Bill of Rights to ensure every parent can have a voice in their child’s education. This bill empowers parents to speak up without fear of retaliation. I’ll always fight to protect parental involvement and to put parents first,” Chavez-DeRemer said. 

A section-by-section summary is available HERE.

Full text of the bill is available HERE.