Your Rights to Control What Your Kids Are Taught

What are your rights to control what your children are taught as part of their education? My name is Brian L. Jackson. I am a Tulsa father’s rights attorney here with Dads.Law, where fathers are not disposable, and I want to talk to you guys a little bit about your rights as parents to direct the education of your children and what they might be exposed to at school.

This is a somewhat fascinating constitutional topic that has been taken up by the Supreme Court a couple of times. One right you do have, and this is outlined in in Pierce v. Society of Sisters, which was an Oregon case involving the Oregon Compulsory Education Act.

And essentially the nugget of the case had to do with the idea of whether or not parents had the right to send their kid to private school instead of public school. And the takeaway from that is you do have that right. So if you can afford it and you want to send your child to private school, you have that right. You have the right to homeschool the children as well. And that’s what essentially what Pierce v. Society of Sisters stands for.

Fields v. Palmdale School District Case

Now there’s a more recent case, a lot of cases having to do with like the actual materials covered in the curriculum of a public school and what the parents’ rights are there. And that case is Fields v. Palmdale School District.

In that case, the Supreme Court came down with the decision that the parents do not have a fundamental right to absolute control over, well, I should say they don’t have a fundamental right to dictate to the schools, to a public school what will be covered in the curriculum. The holding was that the school has that decision.

So the takeaway from this is kind of like this. If you don’t like what your kids are learning in public school, well, then don’t send them there. Send them to somewhere else, whether it’s homeschooling, whether it’s private school or some other alternative where there are not materials in the curriculum to which you object.

Consult with a Lawyer

But you do have some right to control what your children learn in the form of where you place them, who teaches them. That is your right. That is found to be a due process right under the 14th Amendment that parents do have. And if you have questions about that or you have a dispute about something that your children were exposed to at school, then you might want to talk to a good lawyer.

One place you can find a good lawyer is at dads.law where fathers are not disposable.