In 2025, Texas did something parents had spent years demanding: It wrote parents back into their own children’s education. In a single session, lawmakers passed a package of parental rights bills, handed parents real control over the books that sit on school library shelves, and ordered the state to spell out those rights in plain English. On paper, it was one of the strongest sets of parental protections in the country.

But then came the first test, and the protections suddenly looked far weaker. When key provisions of Senate Bill 12—one part of that parental rights package—were challenged in federal court, three of the state’s largest districts—Houston, Katy, and Plano—told the court they took “no position” on whether it was constitutional.

With none of the school districts willing to defend the law or the parental authority it recognized, the court blocked enforcement of the challenged provisions. By May, the Texas Attorney General had to step in to defend the law.

These events should be a warning to Texan parents: A right is only as strong as the people willing to defend it, and, when it comes to parental rights, parents can no longer assume schools are on their side. Whether because of the influence of insurance providers and school board associations or for other reasons, Texas districts are not always going to stand with the parents they serve, even when state law requires it.

Public schools are funded by taxpayers, entrusted with our children, and expected to serve our families. Their job is to teach students to read, write, reason, and master the knowledge responsible citizenship requires. It is not to compete with parents for moral authority over children, conceal controversial practices, or treat children as a captive audience for someone else’s agenda.

Yet too many parents have watched as schools cross that line. Whether the issue is politicized classroom content, one-sided presentations about religion or culture, secrecy around a student’s “transitioning,” or pressure to affirm beliefs contrary to those instilled at the kitchen table, the pattern repeats.

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When responsible parents ask reasonable questions about what’s actually happening in their children’s classrooms, schools don’t always give straight answers. Often, they treat parents like obstacles, not partners, by engaging in delay, condescension, and euphemism. A school that believes families must be managed rather than respected will keep testing boundaries until someone makes it stop.

Parents, you can stop this. Your options are not exhausted by three minutes at a podium while school board members check their phones. You have the right to ask questions, demand records, review materials, organize with other families, and object when a school moves from education into coercion or concealment. You should insist that schools stay within their proper role under the law, and you should expect candor from public officials.

Institutions rarely correct themselves simply because someone insisted. Bureaucracies are built to absorb outrage; they are far less comfortable with parents who are informed, organized, and prepared to act. Sometimes that means putting public pressure on schools. Sometimes it means voting in a new school board. And sometimes it means a lawsuit.

While litigation should rarely be the first step, it is often the only step that works once a school has decided that parents can safely be ignored. When officials hide information, retaliate against dissent, or override parental authority, legal action is not extremism. It is accountability.

The good news is that the Supreme Court has recently signaled its support for parents’ rights. For over a century, the Supreme Court has held that parents generally have a constitutional right to direct the upbringing and education of their children.

Last year, in Mahmoud v. Taylor, the court forcefully reaffirmed that right, ruling that a school curriculum that substantially interferes with a child’s religious upbringing violates parents’ rights. And earlier this year, in Mirabelli v. Bonta, the court went further, concluding that school policies that authorize children to undergo a gender transition without their parents’ involvement violate parents’ rights. More generally, under Mirabelli, schools that intentionally keep secrets from or deceive parents are on shaky constitutional ground.

Parents who suspect their children’s school is violating their parental rights should start thinking about documentation and enforcement. Save the emails. Request the policies. Ask for the instructional materials. Put concerns in writing and force administrators to explain their positions.

Schools count on parents being too busy or intimidated to push back. What they fear is a parent who knows the facts, understands the stakes, and is prepared to escalate. Texas has already done the hard legislative work, and the protections it enacted are among the best in the country. But the fight over Senate Bill 12 is proof that those protections are worth little unless the institutions bound by them are willing to honor them, and unless the families they were written for are willing to insist.

Public schools will keep testing the limits of parental authority so long as they believe parents will merely grumble and move on. That calculation changes only when families are ready to use every lawful tool available.

If Texan parents want schools to remember whom they serve, they will have to remind the schools. And if those reminders fail, the courthouse is open for a reason.

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