The Parental Rights Movement, Explained

What Is the Parental Rights Movement

The parental rights movement is a political campaign, started around 2021, that uses the language of parental rights to change what public schools teach, stock, and disclose. It draws on a real legal idea. Parents have had a constitutional right to direct the upbringing and education of their own children since the 1920s. The movement borrows that language and applies it to a different claim, that a parent should be able to decide what every child in a school can read or learn.

The Legal History Behind the Phrase

The legal right is real and old. It protects a parent’s choices for their own child against the state. Three Supreme Court cases built it, and a reader needs them to see what the modern movement borrowed.

In 1923, Meyer v. Nebraska struck a state law that banned teaching foreign languages. The Court held that the “liberty” in the 14th Amendment includes a parent’s right “to control the education of their own.” In 1925, Pierce v. Society of Sisters struck an Oregon law forcing all children into public school, with the line that “the child is not the mere creature of the state.” In 2000, Troxel v. Granville struck a visitation order a court imposed over a fit parent’s objection, calling the right to direct a child’s upbringing “perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests.”

1. 1923 Meyer v. Nebraska Parents have a right to direct their child's education. Strikes a ban on teaching foreign languages. (source)
2. 1925 Pierce v. Society of Sisters Parents may choose private or religious school. "The child is not the mere creature of the state." (source)
3. 2000 Troxel v. Granville Reaffirms the parental right as "the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests." (source)
4. 2006 ParentalRights.org founded Michael Farris (HSLDA, later ADF) pushes a constitutional Parental Rights Amendment. It never advances. (source)
5. 2021 Moms for Liberty founded Three Florida women launch the group that becomes the movement's engine. 115,000+ members follow. (source)
6. 2022 Florida HB 1557 The "Parental Rights in Education" law restricts LGBTQ lessons and requires parent notification. (source)
7. 2023 Federal H.R. 5 passes the House The Parents Bill of Rights Act clears the House 213–208, then dies in the Senate. (source)
8. 2024 Book bans hit 10,046 PEN America records a one-year record, up about 200%. A quarter of titles feature LGBTQ characters. (source)

Sources: Cornell, Justia, ParentalRights.org, PEN America

The Settled Law (1923–2000) and the Political Turn (2006–2026): 1923 — Meyer v. Nebraska (Parents have a right to direct their child's education. Strikes a ban on teaching foreign languages.). 1925 — Pierce v. Society of Sisters (Parents may choose private or religious school. "The child is not the mere creature of the state."). 2000 — Troxel v. Granville (Reaffirms the parental right as "the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests."). 2006 — ParentalRights.org founded (Michael Farris (HSLDA, later ADF) pushes a constitutional Parental Rights Amendment. It never advances.). 2021 — Moms for Liberty founded (Three Florida women launch the group that becomes the movement's engine. 115,000+ members follow.). 2022 — Florida HB 1557 (The "Parental Rights in Education" law restricts LGBTQ lessons and requires parent notification.). 2023 — Federal H.R. 5 passes the House (The Parents Bill of Rights Act clears the House 213–208, then dies in the Senate.). 2024 — Book bans hit 10,046 (PEN America records a one-year record, up about 200%. A quarter of titles feature LGBTQ characters.).

Those three cases all share a limit. They protect a parent against the state forcing a choice about that parent’s own child. None of them give a parent veto power over the curriculum every other child receives. That distinction is the seam the modern movement works in.

The phrase also has an older political root than 2021. In 2006, Michael Farris, who founded the Home School Legal Defense Association and later led the Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, started ParentalRights.org to push a constitutional Parental Rights Amendment. It never passed. The amendment failed, but the framing it built waited for an opening.

How the Movement Works

The movement runs the same three-step play in state after state. A reader who sees the pattern once can spot it everywhere.

First comes the frame. “Parents should decide” is hard to argue against, which is the point. It moves a fight over curriculum and library books onto ground where opposing it sounds like opposing parents.

Second comes the model bill. Groups circulate template legislation, a “Parents’ Bill of Rights” or a “Parental Rights in Education” act, that local legislators introduce nearly word for word. The Florida law became the template. PEN America found derivative bills in at least 20 states within two years.

Third comes the local pressure. Chapters run and endorse school-board candidates, pack board meetings, and file book challenges. A small number of people can challenge hundreds of titles, because the laws are written to let a single objection trigger a district-wide review.

The result is a national agenda delivered through thousands of local fights, each one framed as ordinary parents speaking up. That structure, a coordinated campaign presented as spontaneous grassroots, is why researchers apply the astroturfing test to it.

The Groups and the Money

The movement has names, donors, and a paper trail. Naming them marks the difference between a spontaneous wave and an organized campaign, not a charge of bad faith.

Moms for Liberty is the engine. Tina Descovich and Tiffany Justice, both former school-board members, and Bridget Ziegler, then a school-board member and wife of the then-chair of the Florida Republican Party, founded it on January 1, 2021. It grew to more than 300 chapters and 115,000 members. Co-founder Descovich said in late 2021 that the group ran on $50 memberships and T-shirt sales with a roughly $300,000 budget. Reporting by Media Matters that same year documented support from Republican-aligned funders and a Florida political action committee, Conservatives for Good Government.

The leadership pipeline connects to established conservative institutions. Moms for Liberty leaders were trained by the Leadership Institute, the political-training organization founded by Morton Blackwell, and the Heritage Foundation was a partner from the early days. Our astroturfing explainer traces the broader donor network reported around the group.

In June 2023, the Southern Poverty Law Center added Moms for Liberty to its list of anti-government extremist groups, citing its book-removal campaigns, opposition to diversity programs, and a legal challenge to LGBTQ student protections. The group disputes the designation. We present it as SPLC’s attributed finding, not our conclusion.

Parents Defending Education is a national group that litigates and tracks what it calls school “indoctrination.” It appears alongside Moms for Liberty in national Republican messaging, including a 2025 White House video promoting that year’s budget bill.

The Model Bill Spread, State by State

The clearest evidence that this is a coordinated movement is the legislation. The same template appears in state after state, often with near-identical wording. The map below shows where copycat bills of Florida’s 2022 law moved and where they became law.

Florida’s HB 1557 was the prototype. PEN America found that at least 20 states introduced derivative “Don’t Say Gay”-style bills within two years, and copycat laws took effect in states including Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, and North Carolina.

Florida, the 2022 model law

Copycat law in effect

Derivative bill introduced

No such bill on record

Sources: PEN America, state legislative records. Counts reflect bills tracked through 2024; some introduced bills did not become law.

The Florida Model, State by State

State	Status	Detail
Florida	The model	HB 1557 (2022) became the template copied across the country. Narrowed by a March 2024 settlement.
Alabama	Copycat law in effect	HB 322 (2022) restricts lessons and adds a school bathroom rule based on sex assigned at birth.
Arkansas	Copycat law in effect	Restricts K-5 instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Indiana	Copycat law in effect	Restricts instruction and adds parental notification requirements.
Kentucky	Copycat law in effect	SB 150 restricts lessons and limits how schools handle gender identity.
North Carolina	Copycat law in effect	SB 49, the "Parents' Bill of Rights," restricts K-4 instruction and requires notification.
Iowa	Copycat law in effect	SF 496 restricts instruction and requires parental notification of gender-identity requests.
Arizona	Derivative bill introduced	One of at least 20 states where PEN America tracked Florida-style bills.
Georgia	Derivative bill introduced	Florida-style instruction restrictions introduced in the legislature.
Missouri	Derivative bill introduced	Florida-style instruction restrictions introduced in the legislature.
Ohio	Derivative bill introduced	Florida-style instruction restrictions introduced in the legislature.
Oklahoma	Derivative bill introduced	Florida-style instruction restrictions introduced in the legislature.
Tennessee	Derivative bill introduced	Florida-style instruction restrictions introduced in the legislature.
South Carolina	Derivative bill introduced	Florida-style instruction restrictions introduced in the legislature.
Louisiana	Derivative bill introduced	Florida-style instruction restrictions introduced in the legislature.
Michigan	Derivative bill introduced	Florida-style instruction restrictions introduced in the legislature.

The map shows the tell. A genuine grassroots concern would produce different laws in different places, shaped by local debate. A coordinated movement produces the same bill, with the same key provisions, in twenty statehouses at once.

What the Movement Says vs What the Laws Do

The movement’s framing and the laws’ text describe two different things. The framing is about a parent and their own child. The laws operate on every child in a school. The table sets the promise next to the provision.

The pattern is consistent. A right framed as belonging to an individual parent becomes, in the statute, a tool one objector can use over everyone.

What the Laws Do to Students, Teachers, and Libraries

The effects are measurable, and the clearest is in the libraries.

PEN America recorded 10,046 instances of book bans in public schools during the 2023–24 school year, across 29 states and 220 districts, hitting 4,231 unique titles. That was up roughly 200% from the prior year. Since 2021 the running total approaches 16,000.

The bans cluster on the same themes the movement targets in the classroom, which is why the numbers matter. These are not random removals. More than a third of the banned titles feature characters of color, and a quarter feature LGBTQ people, the same two subjects the model bills restrict.

For teachers, the effect is a chill. Many educators in states with these laws report pulling LGBTQ-themed books and lessons rather than risk a complaint, even when the material is legal. Florida’s law was broad enough that a March 2024 settlement was needed to clarify that teachers may still discuss LGBTQ topics and mention their own families.

For LGBTQ students, the sharpest provision is forced outing. PEN America found that, except in Arkansas, the wave of “Don’t Say Gay”-style laws includes language requiring staff to notify parents about a student’s gender identity. That removes a young person’s ability to come out on their own timeline, and it can put a child in an unsafe home. For the wider mechanics of these laws, see our anti-LGBTQ movement explainer.

Where It Stands Now

In 2025–26 the movement is winning at the state level and stalled at the federal level. The federal Parents Bill of Rights Act, H.R. 5, passed the House in 2023 and never got a Senate vote. The Farris constitutional amendment has never advanced. The action is in the states and on school boards.

The fights now run two directions. The movement keeps pushing notification and curriculum-restriction bills in new legislatures. Counter-organizing has grown, with parent groups, librarians, and students winning back school-board seats and reversing book removals in districts from Pennsylvania to Florida.

The movement also faces its own setbacks. Some Moms for Liberty-backed school-board candidates lost in 2023 and 2024, and the group drew negative coverage after a Florida scandal involving co-founder Bridget Ziegler. The label “parental rights” still polls well, but the specific policies, especially book removals and outing rules, poll worse once voters see what they do. Our coverage of book bans tracks the district-level fights.

Real Rights and Real Concerns

Parental rights are not a fiction, and parents’ concerns about schools are often sincere. Being precise about this is what makes the rest of the page credible.

• Parents do have real constitutional rights. Meyer, Pierce, and Troxel are settled law. A parent can choose private school, religious school, or homeschooling, and can object to how the state treats their own child. None of that is in dispute.
• Wanting to know what your kid is taught is reasonable. Curriculum transparency and the ability to review materials are ordinary, fair requests. Most schools already provide them.
• Many participants are sincere. Plenty of parents who join these efforts are genuinely worried about their children, not part of any strategy. The astroturf critique is about the funding and the coordination at the top, not the beliefs of individual members.
• The issue is the leap from “my child” to “every child.” A parent’s right to direct their own child’s upbringing is not the same as a right to remove a book or a lesson for everyone else’s children. The movement’s laws make that leap, and that is the part worth scrutiny.
• Not every book challenge is a ban campaign. A single parent raising a concern about one title is part of normal school life. The pattern that draws scrutiny is one objector challenging hundreds of titles, or a model bill written to make that easy.

The test is not whether parents have rights. They do. The test is whether a law gives one parent control over what all children can read and learn, and whether the campaign behind it is what it claims to be.

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Frequently asked questions

Is the parental rights movement the same as the legal right to parent? No. The legal right, established in Meyer v. Nebraska (1923) and reaffirmed in Troxel v. Granville (2000), protects a parent’s decisions about their own child. The movement is a recent political campaign that uses that language to change what public schools teach and stock for all children. The first is settled law. The second is contested policy.

What is a “Parents’ Bill of Rights”? It is template legislation that lists parental powers over schools, such as reviewing curriculum, getting library book lists, and receiving notification about a child. Versions have passed in several states. The federal version, H.R. 5, passed the U.S. House in March 2023 by 213–208 and died in the Senate.

What does Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law say? Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act (HB 1557, 2022) restricted classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity and required schools to notify parents about changes in a student’s well-being. A March 2024 settlement clarified that teachers may still discuss LGBTQ topics and reference their own families.

Why do people call it astroturfing? Because the campaign is presented as spontaneous but is coordinated and funded. The same model bills appear in many states, leadership was trained by national conservative groups, and the Heritage Foundation was an early partner. See our astroturfing explainer for the test researchers use.

Did the Southern Poverty Law Center really call Moms for Liberty extremist? Yes. In June 2023 the SPLC added the group to its list of anti-government extremist groups, citing book bans, anti-DEI efforts, and a challenge to LGBTQ student protections. The group disputes the designation.

What You Can Do

1. Oppose forced-outing bills in your state. The provisions that require schools to notify parents about a student’s gender identity are the sharpest part of these laws. Tell your state legislators to vote no, and to reject any “Parents’ Bill of Rights” that includes a notification mandate. Use the letter and call script below.

2. Show up for school-board races. This movement runs through local boards. Find out who is running, ask candidates whether they support book removals and outing rules, and vote in board elections, which usually see tiny turnout. A handful of votes can decide a seat.

3. Use the formal book-reconsideration process. Most districts have a policy for challenging a book removal. The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom and Unite Against Book Bans provide templates and support for parents who want titles kept on the shelf.

4. Support the groups doing the tracking. PEN America counts the bans, and local library and parent coalitions fight them district by district. Their data is what lets anyone see the national pattern behind the local fights.

5. Read the related explainers. Understand the book bans mechanics, the anti-LGBTQ movement behind the laws, and the christian nationalism legal network the framing comes from.