Forloveofgodandcountry: School Parents Bill of Rights

Diane Rufino at Forloveofgodandcountry’s Blog has written an article on the education system titled A Parent’s Bill of Rights. In it she discusses some failings in the school system and the loss of parental input and control over education.

Excerpt:

…Back in the day (and I’m not that old), it was always assumed that religion, morality, and knowledge were the legs to a solid public school education. It was always assumed that those in charge of the education of our children were in line with the rightful expectations of parents. And we, as parents, used to believe that we could go into the schools, into our child’s classroom, and see what they are learning and how they are being taught. This was so back in the 70’s when I was a child in the public school system in New Jersey and up until several years ago in North Carolina. What changed?  When did we lose the time-honored notion of a “sound, basic education?” When did we as parents lose our rights to know how our children are being educated? When did we lose control over our children?  When did the school system take control of them and disrupt the parent-child relationship?  When did the school system usurp our parental rights?

And so, I’d like to address a different topic with regard with the education of our children in this article –  a PARENT’S BILL OF RIGHTS…

Parents have a voice and that voice needs to be heard. They have rights and they need to be respected and not ignored. Parents have every right to be involved in the classroom. After I heard Ms. Kelly Mann, the Outreach Director for the John Locke Foundation (Raleigh, NC) mention an article she had written on A Parent’s Bill of Rights for its website, I became energized to help promote it. I wrote to every single North Carolina house member and every single state senator asking them to consider a bill officially recognizing parents’ rights in the education of their children.

A Parent’s Bill of Rights should, at least, include all of the following. I’m sure parents can come up with additional “rights” and I hope they do. The first 10 rights come from Ms. Mann (I want to make sure she gets the credit, which she absolutely deserves) and the rest are ones that I’ve come up with:

1. Education funds must follow students, not systems.
2. Parents have the right to engage in the selection and approval of academic standards.
3. Parents have the right to access educational materials, resources, and syllabi taught to their children in the classroom.
4. Parents have the right to make medical care decisions on behalf of their children.
5. Parents will receive timely notification of information related to the health, well-being, and education of their children.
6. In-person education is a right that should always be available as a choice.
7. Parents have the right to transparent access to school and school district academic performance.
8. Parents have the right to access detailed and up-to-date district financial records.
9. Parents have the right to opt their children out of the classroom for delivery of content listed in the syllabus with which they disagree.
10. Parents have the right to know of threats to their child’s safety (individually or school-wide).
11. Parents have the right to determine and choose which education environment will best serve their child’s education needs, without judgement from others or resistance by the school system, even if that environment is at home (home-schooling).
12. Parents have the fundamental right to make decisions regarding their child’s education, well-being, and access to public school progressive indoctrination. Religion, morality, family and social values are matters to be directed and respected as belonging to parents.
13. Parents have the right to be able to sit-in on their child’s class, upon making a request to do so.
14.  Parents have the right to be provided with information, data, and statistics as to the shortcomings or failures (as well as successes) of each school system their child can potentially attend.
15. Parents have the right to be notified should the school feel the need to have a counselor speak to their child, and to have the right to refuse to have their child “counseled” by the school.
16. Parents have the absolute right to be notified of and to be involved in the filling out of ANY questionnaire or survey that the school assigns to their child. Likewise, parents have the absolute right to refuse to have their child answer such questionnaires or surveys. Parents have the right to control what information is shared with the school system (ie, government).
17. For parents of exceptional children:  Parents have the right to have their child’s exceptionalism diagnosed and served by the education system.