The rights and responsibilities of parents and guardians

POLICY

Recent Supreme Court decision expands opt-out rights

Parents and guardians play a vital role in shaping their children’s beliefs and sense of morality, and in helping their children develop into caring and productive members of society. Schools also play a significant role in the development of children, creating lifelong learners and preparing them for college or career. Because of these similar roles, it is important that families and local educational agencies work together for the benefit and development of students.

The California Department of Education’s (CDE) Parent Involvement and Family Engagement webpage (www.cde.ca.gov/LS/pf/pf) states that meaningful engagement of parents and guardians with their child’s education leads to improved student outcomes and stronger family-school relationships. Additionally, the Legislature has declared through Education Code (EC) Section 51100 that “research has shown conclusively that early and sustained family involvement at home and at school in the education of children results both in improved pupil achievement and in schools that are successful at educating all children, while enabling them to achieve high levels of performance.”

EC 51101 mandates district and county office of education governing boards to adopt a policy, jointly developed with families, that outlines how parents and guardians, school staff and students may share the responsibility for continuing the intellectual, physical, emotional and social development and well-being of students at each school site. Such policy is required to include: (1) the means by which the school and parents/guardians may help students achieve academic and other standards of the school, (2) a description of the school’s responsibility to provide a high-quality curriculum and instructional program in a supportive and effective learning environment that enables all students to meet the academic expectations of the school, and (3) the manner in which parents/guardians may support the learning environment of their children. CSBA created Board Policy/Administrative Regulation (BP/AR) 5020 – Parent Rights and Responsibilities in line with this requirement.

Existing law provides California parents and guardians with a number of important rights and privileges regarding their students. A comprehensive list of these rights is included in AR 5020. Some of those rights include the right to observe their child’s classroom; to meet with their child’s teacher and principal; to volunteer; to have a school environment for their child that is safe and supportive of learning; to examine the curriculum materials of the class(es) in which their child is enrolled; to be informed of their child’s progress in school; to have access to their child’s student records; to question anything in their child’s student record that the parent or guardian feels is inaccurate or misleading or is an invasion of privacy; and to receive information concerning the academic performance standards, proficiencies or skills their child is expected to accomplish.

Additionally, parents and guardians of English learners also have rights to support their child’s advancement toward literacy; to be informed through the school accountability report card about statewide and local academic standards, testing programs, accountability measures and school improvement efforts; to participate in school and district advisory bodies; and to be given any required written notification in English and the student’s home language.

Dad reading a story to his young child on a sunny day at home

Expanding parent/guardian rights

The U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2025 decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor held that the First Amendment required a district to provide parents with notice and the ability to opt their elementary school students out of instruction regarding LGBTQ+ storybooks on the grounds that it violated their First Amendment rights by substantially interfering with their children’s religious development. While the Court did not hold that the district was prohibited from teaching the storybooks at issue, it held that the district needed to provide parents and guardians with notice of the materials to be taught and the right to opt out. The Court emphasized that the question of whether certain instructional content “substantially interfer[es] with the religious development” of a student “will always be fact-intensive.” However, the Court did not specify how LEAs are to implement the requirement to provide notice and permit opt-outs.

In light of Mahmoud, CSBA recently updated a number of policies (e.g., BP/AR 6141.2 – Recognition of Religious Beliefs and Customs), and is in the process of updating BP/AR 5020 to include language incorporating the expanded rights to opt students out of certain instruction. However, given the complexity of this issue, it is recommended that districts and COEs also consult CSBA’s District and County Office of Education Legal Services or other legal counsel when issues of opt-outs arise.

With respect to the rights and responsibilities of parents and guardians, it is also important to note that not everything a school does is at the direction or discretion of families. For instance, certain instructional content is required to be taught to students. EC Section 51204.5 requires instruction in social sciences to include a study of the role and contributions of specified groups of people to the economic, political and social development of California and the U.S., which includes people of all genders, Latino Americans, LGBTQ+ Americans and members of other ethnic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic status groups.

In addition to the requirement that LEAs adopt a policy on how parents and guardians, school staff and students share responsibility for students, EC sections 11503 and 11504 and 20 U.S. Code 6318 mandates that each LEA adopt a separate policy, developed jointly with and agreed upon by parents/guardians and family members of participating students, on parent/guardian and family engagement. CSBA created BP/AR 6020 – Parent Involvement to align with this requirement. Together, BP/AR 6020 establishes expectations and objectives for meaningful parent/guardian and family involvement and describes how the district or COE will address specified components and optional strategies for addressing each component.

With the recent expansion of parent/guardian rights under Mahmoud, now is a good time to review LEA policies and practices related to providing parents/guardians with notice and the opportunity to opt their students out of certain instructional content.

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