Pupil instruction: transgender concepts: opt out.
AB 600
California Bills
20250AB__060099INT INTRODUCED 2025-02-13 2025 AB INT Introduced by Assembly Member Castillo LEAD_AUTHOR ASSEMBLY Castillo
An act to add
Section to the Education Code, relating to pupil instruction. pupil instruction Pupil instruction: transgender concepts: opt out. Existing law requires the adopted courses of study for grades to 6, inclusive, and grades to 12, inclusive, to each include, among other courses, social sciences, drawing upon the disciplines of anthropology, economics, geography, history, political science, psychology, and sociology, designed to fit the maturity of the pupils.
Existing law requires instruction in social sciences to include, among other things, the early history of California and a study of the role and contributions of people of all genders, Native Americans, African Americans, Latino Americans, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, European Americans, LGBTQ+ Americans, persons with disabilities, and members of other ethnic, cultural, religious, and socioeconomic status groups, to the economic, political, and social development of California and the United States of America, with particular emphasis on portraying the role of these groups in contemporary society.
If any part of a school’s instruction in health conflicts with the religious training and beliefs of a parent or guardian of a pupil, existing law requires the pupil, upon written request of the parent or guardian, to be excused from the part of the instruction that conflicts with the religious training and beliefs.
This bill, notwithstanding any other law and upon the written request of a pupil’s parent or guardian, would require the pupil to be excused from, and would prohibit the pupil from participating in, (1) any part of a public school’s curricula, instructions, lessons, presentations, or assemblies discussing, involving, or referencing transgender concepts, as defined, and (2) any anonymous, voluntary, and confidential tests, questionnaires, or surveys discussing, involving, or referencing transgender concepts.
The bill would prohibit a school district, county office of education, or charter school from subjecting a pupil to any disciplinary action, academic penalty, or other sanction for being excused from participation. This bill would require school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools, while any excused activity is taking place, to make an alternative educational activity available to pupils whose parents or guardians have made a written request to excuse their child’s participation.
The bill would require those local educational agencies to inform parents and guardians of their rights pursuant to the bill, as provided. By imposing additional duties on local educational agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
This bill, notwithstanding any other law, would provide that any individual whose rights pursuant to the bill have been violated shall have a private right of action against the individual, entity, or local educational agency engaged in the violation for damages and any equitable relief as the court may determine justified, and would authorize the court to also award reasonable attorney’s fees and court costs to the prevailing party. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state.
Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above. MAJORITY NO YES YES NO NO NO NO NO NO NO The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (
a) The Legislature recognizes that parents and guardians have the ultimate responsibility for imparting values regarding human sexuality to their children, as provided in
Section of the Education Code. (
b) The Legislature recognizes that parents and guardians can excuse their children from any part of a school’s instruction in health that conflicts with their religious training and beliefs, including personal moral convictions, upon written request of the parent of guardian, as provided in
Section of the Education Code. (
c) The Legislature recognizes that parents and guardians have an integral
part in their children’s education, and have a right to information about their child’s education, as provided in
Section of the Education Code. (
d) Parents’ having a fundamental right to “... the care, custody, and control of their children—is perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests recognized by [the Supreme Court]” (Troxel v. Granville (2000) 530 U.S. 57, 65). (e) “‘It is cardinal [to the Supreme Court] that the custody, care and nurture of the child reside first in the parents, whose primary function and freedom include preparation for obligations the state can neither supply nor hinder’” (Troxel v. Granville, supra, 530 U.S. 57 at 65–66, quoting Prince v. Massachusetts (1944) 321 U.S. 158, 166). (
f) At the inception of the Fourteenth Amendment, “[the] concept of total parental control over children’s lives extended into the schools” (Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Ass’n. (2011) 564 U.S. 786, 830 (dis. opn. of Thomas, J.)). (
g) It is well-established that parents have the right to direct the education of the children (Pierce v. Society of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary (1925) 268 U.S. 510, 534–35). (
h) Parental rights extend beyond the threshold of the school door (Fields v. Palmdale School Dist. (PSD) (9th Cir. 2006) 447, F.3d. 1187, 1190–91, per curiam (deleting contrary language from Fields v. Palmdale School Dist. (9th Cir. 2005) 427 F.3d. 1197, 1207)). (
i) Schools have been teaching pupils about gender identities and transgenderism, a belief system that requires an individual to believe that a human can have a mismatch between their brain and body; e.g., that a human could have been born in the wrong body. (
j) Many parents do not believe that individuals have a gendered soul that is only known to the individual; many parents instead believe that there are only two sexes, and that sex is determined based upon an individual’s immutable characteristics of their reproductive system, as determined by anatomy and genetics at the time of birth, with females being an individual who has, had, will have, or would have had but for a congenital anomaly or intentional or unintentional disruption, a reproduction system that is designed to produce eggs, whether or not eggs are produced, and males beings an individual whose body has, had, will have, or would have had but for a congenital anomaly or intentional or unintentional disruption, a reproduction system that is designed to produce sperm, whether or not sperm is produced. (
k) No human has changed sex. (
l) The number of children and adolescents between and years of age, inclusive, that believe that they were born in the wrong body have increased markedly, with a three-fold increase over the span of five years between to 2017, inclusive, according to Reuters, and this increase correlates with the ever increasing and expanding instruction about gender identity and transgenderism in schools, both through sex educational curriculum and other instruction.
SEC. 2.
Section is added to the Education Code , immediately following
Section 51246 , to read: 51247. (
a) Notwithstanding any other law and upon the written request of a pupil’s parent or guardian, the pupil of a local educational agency shall be excused from participating in all of the following:
(1) Any part of a public school’s curricula, instructions, lessons, presentations, or assemblies discussing, involving, or referencing transgender concepts.
(2) Any anonymous, voluntary, and confidential tests, questionnaires, or surveys discussing, involving, or referencing transgender concepts. (
b) If the local educational agency has received a written request from a pupil’s parent or guardian requesting the pupil be excused from participating pursuant to subdivision (a), the pupil shall not attend any class, lesson, presentation, or assembly discussing, involving, or referencing transgender concepts, or participate in any anonymous, voluntary, and confidential tests, questionnaires, or surveys discussing, involving, or referencing transgender concepts. (
c) A local educational agency shall not subject a pupil to any disciplinary action, academic penalty, or other sanction if the pupil’s parent or guardian requests the pupil be excused from receiving instruction or lessons, or from participating in classes, presentations, or assemblies that discuss, involve, or reference transgender concepts, or from participating in any anonymous, voluntary, and confidential tests, questionnaires, or surveys discussing, involving, or referencing transgender concepts. (
d) While any instruction, class, lesson, presentation, or assembly, or any anonymous, voluntary, and confidential test, questionnaire, or survey, discussing, involving, or referencing transgender concepts is being held or administered, an alternative educational activity shall be made available to pupils whose parents or guardians have made a written request pursuant to subdivision (a). (
e) At the beginning of each school year, or for a pupil who enrolls in a school after the beginning of the school year, at the time of the pupil’s enrollment, each local educational agency shall notify the parents or guardians of each pupil of their rights pursuant to this section. (
f) For purposes of this section, the following
definitions apply: (1) “Local educational agency” means a school district, county office of education, or charter school. (2) “Transgender concepts” include any of the following: (
A) Sex as being a social construct. (
B) Humans as not being sexually dimorphic. (
C) Sex as being assigned or guessed at birth. (
D) Gender identity. (
E) Transgender identities of any kind. (
F) Sex and gender as being a spectrum. (
G) Gender dysphoria. (
H) Gender expression. (
I) Gender. (J) “Gender affirming health care” or “gender affirming mental health care,” as defined in
Section 16010.2 of the Welfare and Institutions Code. (
K) Queer theory. (
L) Pedophilia as a sexual orientation. (
g) Notwithstanding any other law, any individual whose rights pursuant to this
section have been violated shall have a private right of action against the individual, entity, or local educational agency engaged in violating this
section for damages and any equitable relief as the court may determine justified. The court may also award reasonable attorney’s fees and court costs to the prevailing party.
SEC. 3. If the Commission on State Mandates determines that this act contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to local agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made pursuant to