Focus on the Family and Family Policy Alliance are launching an updated and revised resource to help parents navigate the serious problems in our education system: Equipping Parents for Back-to-School.
How would you respond if you discovered your school clinic was dispensing contraceptives to children — without informing parents? Or if a boy took a spot on your daughter’s high school soccer team because he “identified” as a girl? Or if you found out your six-year-old child’s teacher was reading books about gender-confused children to the whole classroom?
In December 2020, Family Policy Alliance and Focus on the Family released a resource to help parents navigate these types of issues in the education system: Back to School – For Parents. Now, we’ve updated this free resource!
In the past four years, and especially with the COVID-19 school closures, we’ve become aware of even more problems in the education system. Stories like these have made headlines across the country:
Boys using girls restrooms and locker rooms.
Schools hiding students’ mental health issues from parents.
The failure of some school districts to teach children basic skills like reading, writing and arithmetic.
Profane, violent and sexual books in school classrooms and libraries.
Students being trained as radical activists.
Decades ago, families could rest in the knowledge that local educators and administrators generally shared their values and weren’t working to undermine families’ deeply held beliefs. They trusted local schools to teach civics, literature, mathematics, and science, not inculcate children into radical, activist, and even sexualized ideologies.
But that’s no longer the case: Parents should not assume that schools will affirm and uphold their families’ beliefs and values.
Consider just a few troubling incidents:
Public schools near Raleigh, North Carolina, “held an equity-themed teachers’ conference with sessions on ‘whiteness,’ ‘microaggressions,’ ‘racial mapping’ and ‘disrupting texts.’”
California parents discovered elementary schools promoting secret “Gender & Sexualities Alliance” (GSA) clubs on elementary school campuses. This isn’t just happening in the Golden State; activist LGBT organization GSA Network claims to have a network of 40 statewide organizations and more than 4,000 such groups in K-12 schools across the country.
A fifth grade student asked to start a prayer club at her elementary school, but school administrators refused her request, violating her religious freedom. Creekside Elementary, near Seattle, Washington, denied the request even though other student groups are allowed to meet on campus.
Parents should think carefully about where their children go to school and what they’re being taught and exposed to – and take action to safeguard their children. That’s why we’ve released this updated, free resource: Equipping Parents for Back-to-School.
While we believe many teachers and school officials have the best interests of children at heart, teachers cannot always overcome bad state, local and federal education policies.
Equipping Parents helps you understand your rights and your children’s rights, prepares you to take action if you need to, explains state and federal laws related to a variety of school issues, and gives guidance for talking with your child about sensitive issues.
Each section deals with different potential problems within local schools, such as classroom curriculums and textbooks, sports teams and locker rooms, school health clinics and counseling offices, and school internet and computers. Then, the resource equips you with ideas for responding and protecting your child.
We want parents to feel confident and equipped to handle issues affecting public – and private and online – schooling. The FREE downloadable resource helps you be aware of what’s going on in your child’s classroom and offers guidance for how to advocate for your child in the school year ahead.
Related articles and resources:
Equipping Parents for Back-to-School
Fairfax County Puts Obscene Books Back in School Libraries
Focus on the Family: Putting Children First in Education
Focus on the Family Parenting: Thriving Student
Reading and Math Scores Plummeted During Pandemic, New Report Finds
Sexualizing Schoolchildren: Classroom and Library Books
Students’ Test Scores Tank After School Consults ‘Woke Kindergarten’
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