On May 20, 2025, Bob Ferguson signed House Bill 1296, effectively gutting the Parents Rights Initiative. That same day, the sponsors of the original Parents Rights Initiative discussed a plan they were considering to repeal House Bill 1296 and restore parents rights by submitting another Parents Rights Initiative to the legislature. In a previous article, we explained why submitting any more initiatives to the legislature is a bad idea. We should be guided by the rule that “Insanity is repeating the same action over and over again and expecting a different result.” In this article, we will explain why merely repealing House Bill 1296 and restoring the original Parents Rights bill (which is more accurately called a Parental Notice bill) will not address the major problems currently being faced by families here in Washington state – problems which can only be solved by drafting and passing a series of comprehensive Family Rights Initiatives.
Why it would wise to file a comprehensive “Family Rights Initiative to the People” in 2028 instead of a “Parents Rights Initiative to the Legislature” in 2026
The advantage of filing an Initiative to the People in 2028 is that we would give us nearly 3 years to build a large enough volunteer organization and to build enough community news websites so that we can not only gather 400,000 signatures but also so that we can actually pass the Family Rights Initiatives in the General Election.
Problems not addressed by the original Parents Rights Initiative
The main provision of our original Parents Rights Initiative was to insure that parents would be given a complete and accurate record of what is happening to their child while their child was at school. The original Initiative did not cover other important family related issues like protecting their kids from brainwashing and indoctrination.
Nor did it protect the right of girls to their own bathrooms, locker rooms and sports leagues.
Nor did it restore the right of children and parents to be told the scientific truth about the toxicity of Trans Drugs.
Or the scientific truth that it is not possible for boys to be turned into girls or girls to be turned into boys no matter how many drugs are given to the child.
It also did not restore the right of kids with mental health problems to see a child counselor instead of being forced to take Toxic Trans Drugs.
In short, the original Parents Rights Initiative did not fully protect the parent child relationship. A more comprehensive series of Family Rights Initiatives could and should address all of the above issues. As long as we are going to the effort of gathering 400,000 signatures, let’s pass Initiatives that actually fully restore and fully protect the parent-child relationship.
Clarifying the Washington State Single Subject Rule
Some who have read rough drafts of our Family Rights Initiative have expressed concerns that the Family Rights Initiative might not comply with the “Single Subject Rule” in the Washington State Constitution which has been used nullify some recent Initiatives. It is therefore important to better understand what the single subject rule is and what our Washington Supreme Court has said it means.
Article II, Section 19 of the Washington State Constitution prohibits bills from embracing more than one subject, and that subject must be expressed in the bill's title. This rule is known as the "single-subject" and "subject-in-title" rule: “No bill shall embrace more than one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title." Therefore an Initiative that:
#1 has a broad title
#2 includes subjects related to that title
#3 includes a notice that it broadens and clarifies terms will comply with the single subject rule and
#4 has a title that is not deceptive or misleading
– will be upheld as complying with the single subject rule .
This is especially true if we amend an existing law rather than creating a new law. So rather than repealing House Bill 1296 we will amend it using its framework to create a more Pro-family set of laws. House Bill 1296 is 28 pages long and includes more than 25 sections:
The first sentence of the bill explains that it is about protecting the safety of students. Even though HB 1296 actually harms students instead of protecting them, anything even remotely related to the safety of students can be put in the bill. This includes the legislature’s new School Board Gestapo Scheme intended to punish school board members – because the legislature thinks school board members can be a threat to student safety. HB 1296 also includes a section on protecting teachers from retaliation. This may seem to be unrelated to student safety. But the legislature clearly thinks that to protect student safety, they have to protect teachers. In short, nearly anything that happens at school can be related to student safety and therefore HB 1296 complies with the single subject rule.
The Family Rights Initiative uses a similarly broad title. In fact, it uses the same framework and addresses the same topics as House Bill 1296 – but in a way that actually protects the rights of students and parents. The Family Rights Initiative clarifies the rights of all family members including the rights of students and parents. Like House Bill 1296, the Family Rights Initiative also clarifies the rights and responsibilities of teachers and school board members – because the actions of both teachers and school board members can infringe on the rights of students and parents.
In short, nearly anything that happens at school can be related to student and parent rights and therefore the Family Rights Initiative complies with the single subject rule – as long as the full title specifies that the Initiative broadens and clarifies the rights of students, parents, teachers and school board members. Folks are then alerted that if they want to know how these rights are clarified, they should read the actual text of the Initiative.
Here are some of the bills harming the rights of parents and children that our Initiative will repeal:
#1 Repealing SB 5722 (2018) which prohibits child counseling and requires gender confused kids to be given toxic Trans Drugs instead of counseling.
#2 Repealing RCW 28A.600.477, RCW 28A.300.286, RCW 28A.345.130 & RCW 28A.642.080 (Policy 3211 - 2019) which requires teachers to lie to students about being able to change from a boy to a girl, lie to parents about their children & allows Boys in Girls Sports & Privates Spaces.
#3 Repealing RCW 28A.150.250 which violated Article IX, Section 1 of the Washington State Constitution by allowing OSPI to not fully fund any public schools if their school board fails to comply with anti-parent state policies.
#4 Amending the Mature Minor Doctrine age from 13 to 17 to bring it more closely in line with the latest research on brain development.
#5 Repealing SB 5395 (2020) which requires Sex Ed for Kinders.
#6 Repealing HB 2331 (2024) which requires schools to buy & display age- inappropriate sex books.
#7 Restoring local control of public schools by repealing laws which are detrimental to the local school control rights of parents and children including 2025 House Bill 1296, 2024 House Bill 2331, 2023 Senate Bill 5599, 2018 Senate Bill 5722, 2020 Senate Bill 5395 and 2019 Policy 3211 (including RCW 28A.600.477, RCW 28A.642.080, RCW 28A.300.286, RCW 28A.345.130, RCW 71.34.530 and RCW 28A.150.250.
Here are some of the rights our Initiative will restore:
#1 Restoring essential parents rights including not only that parents have the right to be told the truth about what is happening to their child when their child is at school but also that parents have the right to be involved in any educational or medical decisions affecting their child and parents have the right to opt their child out of any program the parent finds offensive or harmful to their child and parents have the right to the assumption of being a fit and caring parent until proven otherwise in a court of law.
#2 Adding essential student rights including the right to be told the truth, the right to privacy, the right to counseling, the right to fair sports, the right to a good education and most important the right to parental guidance.
#3 Clarifying the Title IX right of girls not just to their own sports leagues but also to their own bathrooms and locker rooms as ordered by the Federal Court in Tennessee v Cardona on January 9, 2025.
#4 Amending the Mature Minor Doctrine to raise the age from 13 to 17.
#5 Clarifying the right of ALL STUDENTS to be free from racial discrimination & requiring compliance with Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act as ordered by US Supreme Court in Students v Harvard in June 2023
#6 Requiring compliance with FERPA Parent Notice.
#7 Requiring compliance with Art. VI Sec. 2 of US Constitution which requires that federal laws have priority over Washington state laws when Washington state laws conflict with federal laws.
#8 Requiring compliance with Article 9 Section 1 of our State Constitution and gives students the right to have a fair chance of success at school by clarifying the words “ample funding” to mean at least national average class sizes – which would require hiring at least 7,000 addictional teachers so that struggling students could finally get the help they need.
#9 Requires compliance with Article 2 Section 28 of the Washington State Constitution to prohibits withholding any portion of the apportionment from any school for any reason.
#10 Clarifying the meaning of education related sections of the Washington State Constitution including clarifying that “ample” funding includes the right of all students to at least national average class sizes (which would require hiring at least 7000 additional classroom teachers and building 7000 additional classrooms for these teachers), limiting the duty of local parents to provide no more than 10% of school operating costs and school construction costs and the right of students to attend schools that meet Safe Drinking Water requirements and all Building Code requirements.
#11 Giving the legislature 10 years to clear the school construction backlog estimated to be over $40 billion by spending at least $4 billion per year on school construction until the backlog has been cleared.
#12 Adding the right of retired persons over age 62 the right to be exempt from state and local property taxes for the first $400,000 of their primary residence in order to protect them and their family from being driven out of their family homes by being unable to pay rising property taxes while living on a fixed income.
#13 Funding the above rights by repealing all tax preferences except those approved by the voters through Initiatives (these tax breaks violate numerous sections of the Washington State Constitution including Article 2, Section 28 and Article 7, Section 1) thereby generating at least $30 billion per year in recovered state revenue.
#14 Amending the “protected classes” provisions of Washington state laws to clarify that “protected classes” that go beyond the protected classes recognized by federal laws, shall only be protected to the degree that it does not violate federal laws such as Title IX, Title VI and FERPA.
If you would like to learn more about our plan to pass the Washington Family Rights Initiative, please go to YouTube.com and type Washington Parents Network into the search box to reach our YouTube channel. There you will find a 30 minute video called “How to Win the War against our Families”. Here is a direct link to this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIEQrGCrskc
Please like and share this video and subscribe to our channel to be notified about additional videos as we post them in the coming weeks.
Regards,
David Spring M. Ed.
Washington Parents Network