Legislation to protect the rights of parents *and* students in Washington schools heads to Governor Bob Ferguson
A badly written initiative that Washington’s right wing unsuccessfully sought to use as a messaging and get out the vote tool in the November 2024 presidential election is on the verge of being superseded by a comprehensive bill to protect both parental and student rights following a vote on the floor of the Washington State House today to concur in the Senate amendments to Engrossed Substitute House Bill 1296.
Prime sponsored by Representative Monica Stonier (D‑49th District: Clark County), ESHB 1296 cleans up the mess left by the adoption of Jim Walsh and Brian Heywood’s Initiative 2081 last year. Additionally, it codifies a statement of student rights and spells out additional rights for parents that were not previously in state law.
The bill would, according to nonpartisan staff:
Provide that it is a state policy that public school policies and procedures prioritize the protection of students’ safety, access to an academic environment free of discrimination, access to the state’s statutory program of basic education, and privacy.
Add four protected classes to the nondiscrimination provisions that apply to public schools: ethnicity, homelessness, immigration or citizenship status, and neurodivergence; and separate the protected class of sexual orientation including gender expression and identity into three separate protected classes.
https://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2025/04/victory-legislation-to-protect-the-rights-of-parents-and-students-in-washington-schools-heads-to-governor-bob-ferguson.html