[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1709 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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118th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 1709
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.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
May 18, 2023
Mr. Cotton (for himself, Mrs. Hyde-Smith, Mr. Braun, and Mr. Scott of
Florida) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
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 2023''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Some school districts are violating parental and
familial rights by encouraging or instructing staff to deceive
or withhold information from parents if their child is seeking
to ``transition'' genders. 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 dormitories for overnight field
trips.
(2) Powerful teachers unions and activist organizations are
pressuring more schools to adopt policies to enable 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 a neutral,
uncontroversial decision, but an experimental 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 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
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 biological sex.
(3) School employees do not withhold or hide information
from parents about a student's requested gender transition or a
student's purported gender identity, where the student's
purported gender identity is incongruous with biological sex.
(4) School employees do not 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
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.--
(1) In general.--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--
(A) 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
(B) to ensure that--
(i) 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
(ii) each such policy is clearly and
publicly posted on the website of the school.
(2) Establishment of criteria.--The head of each Federal
agency may establish criteria and provide technical assistance
for meeting the requirements of this section.
(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; and
(B) to a prevailing plaintiff, reasonable
attorneys' fees and litigation costs.
(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 in the context of
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 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
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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