The U.S. Supreme Court has delivered a victory for parents who need to be told if their children are questioning their sexual orientation or gender identity.
The justices have blocked a California policy that discourages state educators from telling parents about their children’s struggles.
The high court declared, “The State argues that its policies advance a compelling interest in student safety and privacy. But those policies cut out the primary protectors of children’s best interests: their parents.”
The legal non-profit Becket, filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case. Becket’s President and CEO Mark Rienzi said, “Parents’ fundamental right to raise their children according to their faith doesn’t stop at the schoolhouse door. California tried cutting parents out of their children’s lives while forcing teachers to hide the school’s behavior from parents. We’re glad the Court stepped in to block this anti-family, anti-American policy.”
The California Family Council (CFC) is also celebrating the U.S. Supreme Court ruling. CFC said in a statement, “By reaffirming parents’ constitutional rights and rejecting lower court efforts to limit the parental victory, the Court has vindicated CFC’s consistent message: parents have the fundamental right to know and participate in decisions about their child’s mental, emotional, and physical well-being.”
The Supreme Court’s ruling in Mirabelli v. Bonta puts the policy on hold while it plays out in the lower courts. The legal battle began in 2023 when California passed the law. A federal judge blocked the measure, but an appeals court paused the injunction, prompting the parents’ appeal to the Supreme Court.
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As CBN News first reported in 2024, two teachers, Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori West, have been fighting a legal battle for their jobs after they were initially placed on administrative leave for refusing to withhold information about students’ gender “transitions” from their parents.
A federal ruling in December of 2025 states that California’s parental exclusion policies “harm the parents by depriving them of the long-recognized Fourteenth Amendment right to care, guide, and make health care decisions for their children, and by substantially burdening many parents’ First Amendment right to train their children in their sincerely held religious beliefs.”
‘Children Do Not Belong to the Government’: Federal Judge Smacks Down CA Gender Secrecy Policies
It also found that teachers were “compelled to violate their sincerely held beliefs and the parents’ rights by forcing them to conceal information they feel is critical for the welfare of their students.”
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