I 
119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 5116 
To require elementary schools and secondary schools that receive Federal 
funds to obtain parental consent before facilitating a child’s gender 
transition in any form, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 3, 2025 
Mrs. MILLER of Illinois (for herself, Mrs. LUNA, Mrs. BIGGS of South Caro-
lina, Mr. SELF, Ms. BOEBERT, Mr. HARRIGAN, Mr. MOORE of Alabama, 
Mrs. HARSHBARGER, Ms. STEFANIK, and Ms. MACE) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Work-
force 
A BILL 
To require elementary schools and secondary schools that 
receive Federal funds to obtain parental consent before 
facilitating a child’s gender transition in any form, and 
for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Empower Parents to 
Protect their Kids Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
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(1) School districts across the country have vio-
lated parental and familial rights by encouraging or 
instructing staff to deceive or withhold information 
from parents if their child expresses discomfort with 
their sex or is seeking to socially or physically adopt 
an identity that is incongruent with their sex. With-
out parental knowledge or consent, schools are 
changing the names and pronouns of children in 
school, provided or allowed students to bring clothes 
typically worn by the opposite sex for students to 
change into once they arrive at school, or even allow-
ing children to change which sex-segregated facilities 
they use, such as rest rooms, locker rooms, and dor-
mitories or other housing for overnight field trips. 
(2) This is often being done pursuant to a 
‘‘gender transition plan’’ that is nearly always kept 
secret from parents. In fact, these school districts 
have kept a second set of student records that are 
unknown to the parents. Powerful teachers unions 
and activist organizations have pressured more 
schools to adopt policies to enable and encourage 
children, of any age, to adopt an ‘‘identity’’ that is 
incongruent with their sex and be treated accord-
ingly at school without parental notice or consent. 
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(3) Contrary to the unfounded assertions of ac-
tivists, the social aspects of adopting an identity that 
is incongruent with an individual’s sex are not neu-
tral or uncontroversial. This is experimental and has 
immediate effects on a child’s psychology and dra-
matically increases the statistical likelihood that a 
child will go on to take puberty blocking or sup-
pressing drugs and wrong-sex hormones. Addition-
ally, it makes it more difficult for a child to reverse 
course later on, thereby increasing the likelihood 
that the child will continue on to the surgical ele-
ments of adopting an identity that is incongruent 
with one’s sex, resulting in life-changing, irreversible 
consequences. 
(4) Any policies that attempt to circumvent pa-
rental authority are a violation of parents’ constitu-
tionally protected rights to direct the care, custody, 
and upbringing of their children as recognized by 
the Supreme Court. Further, policies that withhold 
information from parents or ask children about inti-
mate details of their family life violate Federal stat-
utes designed to uphold a parent’s rights and duties 
in education. School districts implementing such 
policies are misrepresenting or entirely ignoring 
these statutes and constitutional protections. 
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(5) On January 29, 2025, President Trump 
signed Executive Order 14191 ‘‘Ending Radical In-
doctrination in K–12 Schooling’’, to enforce the law 
to ensure that recipients of Federal funds providing 
K–12 education comply with all laws protecting pa-
rental rights. 
(6) Schools should never be allowed to intrude 
on family life by misleading or excluding parents 
and confusing children. 
SEC. 3. REQUIREMENTS OF PARENTAL CONSENT. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—No Federal funds shall be made 
available to any elementary school or secondary school un-
less the elementary school or secondary school, with re-
spect to students enrolled at the school who have not yet 
reached 18 years of age, complies with each of the fol-
lowing requirements: 
(1) School employees do not proceed with any 
accommodation intended to affirm a student’s pur-
ported ‘‘identity’’ that is incongruent with the stu-
dent’s sex, or any action to facilitate or otherwise 
aid and abet a minor in adopting such an identity, 
including referral or recommendation to any third- 
party medical provider for a gender transition proce-
dure, unless the employees have received express pa-
rental consent to do so. 
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(2) School employees do not facilitate, encour-
age, or coerce students to withhold information from 
their parents regarding the student’s purported 
identity, when it is incongruent with the student’s 
sex. 
(3) School employees do not withhold or hide 
information from parents about a student’s discom-
fort with their sex, their desire for an identity that 
is incongruent with their sex, their profession of an 
identity that is incongruent with their sex, or their 
desire to undergo a gender transition procedure. 
(4) School employees do not encourage, pres-
sure, or coerce the parents of students, or students 
themselves, to proceed with any intervention to af-
firm the student’s adoption of an identity that is in-
congruent with their sex. 
(b) RULES OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-
tion shall be construed— 
(1) to prevent a school employee from con-
tacting appropriate legal authorities about an immi-
nent threat to a student’s physical safety in the 
event that the school employee knows or has a rea-
sonable suspicion that the student is at risk of phys-
ical abuse, as defined in section 1169 of title 18, 
United States Code; or 
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(2) to deprive any parent of the right to be in-
volved in a child’s actions or discussions about gen-
der transition, without the due process of law. 
(c) ENSURING COMPLIANCE.—The head of each Fed-
eral agency shall require each application for Federal as-
sistance submitted by a State educational agency or local 
educational agency to the head of such Federal agency— 
(1) to describe the steps that each elementary 
school and secondary school served by the State edu-
cational agency or local educational agency proposes 
to take to ensure compliance with the requirements 
under this section and how these steps preserve and 
protect the authority of the family; and 
(2) to ensure that— 
(A) a copy of the written policy that each 
elementary school and secondary school served 
by the State educational agency or local edu-
cational agency has to ensure compliance with 
the requirements under this section is provided 
to the head of such Federal agency and to the 
families of enrolled students; and 
(B) each such policy is clearly and publicly 
posted on the website of the school. 
(d) CIVIL ACTION FOR CERTAIN VIOLATIONS.— 
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(1) IN GENERAL.—A qualified party may, in a 
civil action, obtain appropriate relief with regard to 
a designated violation. 
(2) 
ADMINISTRATIVE
REMEDIES
NOT
RE-
QUIRED.—An action under this section may be com-
menced, and relief may be granted, without regard 
to whether the party commencing the action has 
sought or exhausted any available administrative 
remedy. 
(3) DEFENDANTS
IN
ACTIONS
UNDER
THIS 
SECTION MAY INCLUDE GOVERNMENTAL ENTITIES 
AS WELL AS OTHERS.—An action under this section 
may be brought against any elementary school or 
secondary school receiving Federal financial assist-
ance or any governmental entity assisting an elemen-
tary school or secondary school. 
(4) NATURE OF RELIEF.—In an action under 
this section, the court shall grant— 
(A) all appropriate relief, including injunc-
tive relief and declaratory relief; 
(B) to a prevailing plaintiff, reasonable at-
torneys’ fees and litigation costs; and 
(C) payment for treatments or therapy to 
repair harm to the child from pursuit of ‘‘gen-
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der transition’’ determined as necessary by the 
parent and the child’s medical providers. 
(5) ATTORNEYS FEES FOR DEFENDANT.—If a 
defendant in a civil action under this subsection pre-
vails and the court finds that the plaintiff’s suit was 
frivolous, the court shall award a reasonable attor-
ney’s fee in favor of the defendant against the plain-
tiff. 
(e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
(1) FEMALE.—The term ‘‘female’’, when used 
to refer to a natural person, means an individual 
who naturally has, had, will have, or would have, but 
for a congenital anomaly, historical accident, or in-
tentional or unintentional disruption, the reproduc-
tive system that at some point produces, transports, 
and utilizes eggs for fertilization. 
(2) MALE.—The term ‘‘male’’, when used to 
refer to a natural person, means an individual who 
naturally has, had, will have, or would have, but for 
a congenital anomaly, historical accident, or inten-
tional or unintentional disruption, the reproductive 
system that at some point produces, transports, and 
utilizes sperm for fertilization. 
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(3) SEX.—The term ‘‘sex’’, when referring to 
an individual’s sex, means to refer to either male or 
female, as biologically determined. 
(4) DESIGNATED VIOLATION.—The term ‘‘des-
ignated violation’’ means an actual or threatened 
violation of this section. 
(5) ESEA.—The term ‘‘elementary school’’ and 
‘‘secondary school’’ have the meanings given the 
terms in section 8101 of the Elementary and Sec-
ondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801). 
(6) GENDER TRANSITION.—The term ‘‘gender 
transition’’ means the process in which an individual 
goes from identifying with or presenting as his or 
her sex to identifying with or presenting a self-pro-
claimed identity that does not correspond with or is 
different from his or her sex, and may be accom-
panied with social, legal, or physical changes. 
(7) GOVERNMENTAL ENTITY.—The term ‘‘gov-
ernmental entity,’’ means a school district, a local 
educational agency, a school board, or any agency or 
other governmental unit or subdivision of a State re-
sponsible for education, or of such a local govern-
ment. 
(8) QUALIFIED
PARTY.—The term ‘‘qualified 
party’’ means— 
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