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Federal Parental Rights Issues Arise
As
legislative sessions get started across the country, we have become
aware of a number of issues to watch, including three significant issues
at the national level.
First, ParentalRights.org is joining with several other parent-friendly organizations and leaders to support HR 2769, Rep. Ron Paul’s “Parental Consent Act.”
This bill would prevent federal funds from going to any organization
“to establish or implement any universal or mandatory mental health,
psychiatric, or socioemotional screening program.” It goes on to define
such programs to include “any student mental health screening program
that allows mental health screening of individuals under 18 years of age
without the express, written, voluntary, informed consent of the parent or legal guardian of the individual involved.” (emphasis added)
We do not often take a stand on any legislation beyond the
Parental Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. But we fully support
the requirement of informed parental consent for any program intrusive to the privacy of children; therefore, we support this bill in the U.S. Congress.
Two other concerns that have also caught our attention at the national level
require more study before we can take an informed and definitive stand.
We are investigating these new regulations and are not yet declaring a
position. These include:
New Department of Labor regulations that
appear to impact the right of parents to determine whether their teenage
children manage certain kinds of equipment or work with certain animals
on family farms.
New Department of Education guidelines for
interpreting and applying privacy policies under the Family Education
Rights and Privacy Act (known as FERPA). These policies may impact the
right and ability of parents to protect the privacy of their children
who attend public schools.
Those of you concerned with these policy changes may rest
assured we are looking into them and considering the appropriate
position and action to take.
Action Item
We are not requesting any immediate action on these issues at this time. But please be prepared in the weeks ahead, as we may call upon you to contact Congress regarding one or more of these matters. Of course we will keep you posted on the Parental Rights Amendment as well.
In the meantime, why not share Overruled again by linking to OverruledMovie.com from your blog, Facebook page, Twitter feed, or other network? Or you could send an email to your friends pointing them to OverruledMovie.com.
Let them know it doesn't have to take a lot of time - there is now a
7-minute version available (8 min. with credits) to inform them about
the threats to parental rights.
Thank you for your continued support for parental rights and the Parental Rights Amendment!
Sincerely,
Michael Ramey
Director of Communications & Research
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