[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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