Empower Parents to Protect Their Kids Act of 2022
Bill: H.R.8170 | Sponsor: Rep. Banks, Jim (R-IN)
Policy area: Education

Summary:
Empower Parents to Protect Their Kids Act of 2022
This bill prohibits an elementary or secondary school from receiving federal funds unless the school complies with specified requirements related to parental consent and student gender identity.
Among other requirements, school employees may not withhold information from parents about a minor student's gender transition or gender identity. The Department of Justice or a parent or guardian may bring a civil action against a school for violations.

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 Representatives 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 of 2022''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) School districts across the country are violating 
        parental and familial rights by encouraging or instructing 
        staff to deceive or withhold information from parents if their 
        child expresses confusion about their gender and is seeking to 
        ``transition''. Without parental knowledge or consent, schools 
        are facilitating ``social gender transitions'' by changing the 
        names and pronouns of children in school, or even allowing 
        children to change which sex-segregated facilities they use, 
        such as rest rooms, locker rooms, and dormitories or other 
        housing for overnight field trips.
            (2) Powerful teachers unions and activist organizations are 
        pressuring more schools to adopt policies to enable and 
        encourage children, of any age, to change their ``gender 
        identity'' at school without parental notice or consent.
            (3) Contrary to the unfounded assertions of activists, 
        ``socially transitioning'' a child is not an evidence-based 
        practice and it is not a neutral or uncontroversial decision. 
        This practice is an experimental social and psychological 
        intervention that has immediate effects on a child's psychology 
        and a high likelihood of changing the life path of a child. A 
        ``social gender transition'' may make it more difficult for a 
        child to reverse course later on, thereby increasing the 
        likelihood that the child will continue on to a ``medical 
        transition'', resulting in life-changing, irreversible 
        consequences.
            (4) Any policies that attempt to circumvent parental 
        authority are a violation of parents' constitutionally 
        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 intimate details of their family life violate Federal 
        statutes 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.
            (5) Schools should never be allowed to intrude on family 
        life by misleading or excluding parents and confusing children.

SEC. 3. REQUIREMENT OF PARENTAL CONSENT.

    (a) In General.--No Federal funds shall be made available to any 
elementary school or secondary school unless the elementary school or 
secondary school, with respect to students enrolled at the school who 
have not yet reached 18 years of age, complies with each of the 
following requirements:
            (1) School employees do not proceed with any accommodation 
        intended to affirm a student's purported ``gender identity'', 
        where the student's purported ``gender identity'' is 
        incongruous with the student's biological sex, or any action to 
        facilitate a ``gender transition'', including referral or 
        recommendation to any third-party medical provider, unless the 
        employees have received express parental consent to do so.
            (2) School employees do not facilitate, encourage, or 
        coerce students to withhold information from their parents 
        regarding the student's ``gender transition'' or the student's 
        purported ``gender identity'', where the student's purported 
        ``gender identity'' is incongruous with the student's 
        biological sex.
            (3) School employees do not withhold or hide information 
        from parents about a student's desired ``gender transition'' or 
        a student's purported ``gender identity'', where the student's 
        purported ``gender identity'' is incongruous with the student's 
        biological sex.
            (4) School employees do not encourage, pressure, or coerce 
        the parents of students, or students themselves, to proceed 
        with any treatment or intervention to affirm the student's 
        purported ``gender identity'', where that ``gender identity'' 
        is incongruous with the student's biological sex.
    (b) Rules of Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be 
construed--
            (1) to prevent a school employee from contacting 
        appropriate legal authorities about an imminent threat to a 
        student's physical safety in the event that the school employee 
        knows or has a reasonable suspicion that the student is at risk 
        of physical abuse, as defined in section 1169 of title 18, 
        United States Code; or
            (2) to deprive any parent of the right to be involved in a 
        child's actions or discussions about gender transition, without 
        the due process of law.
    (c) Ensuring Compliance.--The head of each Federal agency shall 
require each application for Federal assistance 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 educational 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 educational 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.--
            (1) In general.--A qualified party may, in a civil action, 
        obtain appropriate relief with regard to a designated 
        violation.
            (2) Administrative remedies not required.--An action under 
        this section may be commenced, 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 assistance or any 
        governmental entity assisting an elementary school or secondary 
        school.
            (4) Nature of relief.--In an action under this section, the 
        court shall grant--
                    (A) all appropriate relief, including injunctive 
                relief and declaratory relief;
                    (B) to a prevailing plaintiff, reasonable 
                attorneys' fees and litigation costs; and
                    (C) payment for treatments or therapy needed to 
                repair harm to the child perpetuated by pursuit of 
                ``gender transition'' determined 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 prevails and the court finds 
        that the plaintiff's suit was frivolous, the court shall award 
        a reasonable attorney's fee in favor of the defendant against 
        the plaintiff.
    (e) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Biological sex.--The term ``biological sex'' means the 
        biological indication of male and female as determined by 
        reproductive potential or capacity, such as sex chromosomes, 
        naturally occurring sex hormones, gonads, and nonambiguous 
        internal and external genitalia present at birth, without 
        regard to a person's psychological, chosen, or subjective 
        experience of gender.
            (2) Designated violation.--The term ``designated 
        violation'' means an actual or threatened violation of this 
        section.
            (3) ESEA.--The terms ``elementary school'' and ``secondary 
        school'' have the meanings given the terms in section 8101 of 
        the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 
        7801).
            (4) Gender identity.--The term ``gender identity'' means a 
        person's self-perception of their gender or claimed gender, 
        regardless of the person's biological sex.
            (5) Gender transition.--
                    (A) In general.--The term ``gender transition'' 
                includes both medical transition and social transition.
                    (B) Medical transition.--The term ``medical 
                transition'' means any medical, hormonal, or surgical 
                intervention undertaken to alter the body of a person 
                in order to assert an identity incongruent with 
                biological sex or undertaken to create or facilitate 
                the development of physiological or anatomical 
                characteristics that resemble a sex different from the 
                person's biological sex.
                    (C) Social transition.--The term ``social 
                transition'' means any action taken to affirm a 
                person's asserted ``gender identity'' that is in 
                contradiction to the person's biological sex, including 
                but not limited to decisions pertaining to the use of 
                sex-specific facilities and accommodations, 
                participation in sex-segregated sports or activities, 
                pronoun and name usage, boarding, sleeping and travel 
                arrangements for field trips (including overnight 
                trips), and dress code guidelines.
            (6) Governmental entity.--The term ``governmental entity'' 
        means a school district, a local educational agency, a school 
        board, or any agency or other governmental unit or subdivision 
        of a State responsible for education, or of such a local 
        government.
            (7) Qualified party.--The term ``qualified party'' means--
                    (A) the Attorney General of the United States; or
                    (B) any parent or legal guardian adversely affected 
                by the designated violation.
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