Empower Parents to Protect their Kids Act of 2025

Bill: 119-s-2702
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Banks, Jim [R-IN]
Introduced: 2025-09-03
Policy area: Education
Latest action: action_date: 2025-09-03
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Summaries:

tv_txt: II 119th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 2702 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES September 3, 2025 Mr. Banks introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions A BILL To require local educational agencies, State educational agencies, and other governmental education entities to respect the rights of parents regarding gender transition, and for other purposes.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Empower Parents to Protect their Kids Act of 2025 . 2. Findings Congress finds the following: (1) School districts across the country have violated 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. Without parental knowledge or consent, schools have changed 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, and even allowed 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) 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 accordingly at school without parental notice or consent. (3) Contrary to the unfounded assertions of activists, the social aspects of adopting an identity that is incongruent with an individual's sex are not neutral or uncontroversial. This is experimental and has immediate effects on a child's psychology and dramatically increases the statistical likelihood that a child will go on to take puberty blocking or suppressing drugs and wrong-sex hormones. Additionally, it makes it more difficult for a child to reverse course later, thereby increasing the likelihood that the child will continue the surgical elements of adopting an identity that is incongruent with one's sex, 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) On January 29, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14190 (90 Fed. Reg. 8853; relating to ending radical indoctrination in K–12 schooling) to enforce the law to ensure that recipients of Federal funds providing K–12 education comply with all laws protecting parental rights. (6) Schools should never be allowed to intrude on family life by misleading or excluding parents and confusing children. 3. Requirements of Parental Consent (a) Definitions In this section: (1) ESEA Definitions The term 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 ). (2) 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 intentional or unintentional disruption, the reproductive system that at some point produces, transports, and utilizes eggs for fertilization. (3) 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 intentional or unintentional disruption, the reproductive system that at some point produces, transports, and utilizes sperm for fertilization. (4) Sex The term sex, when referring to the sex of an individual, means to refer to either male or female, as biologically determined. (5) Designated Violation The term designated violation means an actual or threatened violation of this section. (6) Gender transition The term gender transition means the process in which an individual goes from identifying with or presenting a self-proclaimed identity that does not correspond with or is different from his or her sex, and may be accompanied with social, legal, or physical changes. (7) 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. (8) 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. (b) 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 identity that is incongruent with the student'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 procedure, 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 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 discomfort 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, pressure, or coerce the parents of students, or students themselves, to proceed with any intervention to affirm the student's adoption of an identity that is incongruent with their sex. (c) 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 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. (d) 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. (e) 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 attorney's fees and litigation costs; and (C) payment for treatments or therapy to repair harm to the child from pursuit of gender transition determined as necessary by the parent and the child's medical providers. (5) Attorney Fees for Defendant If a defendant in a civil action under this subsection prevails and the court finds that the suit brought by the plaintiff was frivolous, the court shall award a reasonable attorney's fee in favor of the defendant against the plaintiff.