July 27 is National Parents Day—the 31st since the 1994 Congressional Resolution “recognizing, uplifting, and supporting the role of parents in bringing up their children.”
But this year is different. After years of COVID mandates, online schooling, curriculum challenges, and heated school board meetings, battle-weary parents around the country are celebrating big wins for the recognition and respect of their fundamental rights.
Parents are feeling seen, heard, and encouraged in their vital role of directing their children’s upbringing and education.
June brought a decisive focus on parental rights. June 1 marked the 100th anniversary of the seminal U.S. Supreme Court case Pierce v. Society of Sisters, which held that “[t]he child is not the mere creature of the State” and acknowledged parents’ right—and “high duty”—to raise and educate their kids.
Moms for Liberty designated June as Parental Rights Month. And the House of Representatives introduced a resolution to declare June Family Month.
Parents saw lots of success in the 2025 legislative season. Numerous states enacted pro-parent laws. West Virginia and Indiana both passed strong laws that recognize parental rights as fundamental and entitled to “strict scrutiny” analysis if violated—which is the highest level of legal protection. New Hampshire’s new Parental Bill of Rights requires school boards to promote parental involvement in education and give parents notice of their rights. And North Carolina’s Parents Protection Act protects parents who decline so-called “gender transition” interventions on their child from being prosecuted or losing custody.
There’s been progress for parents to celebrate at the federal level, too. The Families’ Rights and Responsibilities Act was introduced in Congress for the second consecutive year. The FRRA is supported by a diverse Promise to America’s Parents Coalition of more than 50 state and national policy organizations that advocate for laws and policies that give parents accountability, choice, and transparency. The new administration issued pro-parent executive orders to expand educational freedom. And the “Big Beautiful Bill” created a new (and permanent) federal “school choice” tax credit for donations to non-profits that help fund families seeking alternatives for their children’s K-12 education.
Perhaps the greatest cause for celebration is the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor. This landmark opinion reaffirmed that public schools can’t interfere with parents’ First Amendment right to direct the “religious development” of their children by introducing controversial “LGBTQ+-inclusive” books without notice or opt-out rights for parents.
Yes, there’s much to celebrate. But there’s also much more work to be done.
School boards are still silencing parents who question why books with pornographic images are made available to K-5th graders. Comments of parents who speak out at school boards over concerns for their children’s safety are being suppressed.
Schools are still implementing policies that require staff to secretly “socially transition” students and treat them as the opposite sex, without their parents’ knowledge or consent. Students are being assigned to overnight accommodations on school trips based on “gender identity” rather than sex—rooming middle-school boys in the same room with girls, without parental notification or opt-out.
And schools are still administering highly inappropriate student surveys with questions that are sexually graphic and reference hard-core drugs. Often without adequate notice to parents and in violation of the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment.
So, while parents are “winning” some in the legislatures—and now the courts thanks to Mahmoud—they are still “losing” in schools.
Parents’ constitutional right to raise their children must be recognized and respected more broadly than the right to guide their religious development. Religious or not, parents have the right and responsibility to lead their families by directing their values, training, education, and health care.
If schools can exclude parents from critical decisions like whether their daughter rejects her sex and adopts a new “gender identity,” or shares a hotel room overnight with a male student, then we have a problem.
More states need to pass Parents’ Bill of Rights, putting parents in the driver’s seat where they belong. More courts need to hold schools accountable, upholding parents’ broad constitutional right to raise their children. More schools need to partner with parents, prioritizing their contribution and involvement in education so children can flourish.
National Parents Day is a great reminder. Parents play a vital role in their children’s lives and know and love their children best. And while parents certainly have reason to celebrate, there’s still much work to be done.
Sharon Supp is legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal) at its Center for Parental Rights.