Education
Missouri Parents' Bill of Rights
THE PROBLEM
Parents play a fundamental role in their children’s education, but a lack of transparency from school districts makes it difficult for them to stay informed. Too often, parents struggle to determine how well their children’s schools are performing, how taxpayer dollars are being spent, and what is being taught in the classroom. School districts often make it financially prohibitive for parents to access the information they need to hold schools accountable.
THE SOLUTION
The fundamental right of parents to participate in and direct the education of their children should be affirmed in state law with the adoption of a parents’ bill of rights, which would require districts to provide parents with clear information about what is happening in their children’s schools.
Which Rights Should Be Included in Statute?
At a minimum, parents should have the right to know:
- What Missouri schools are teaching.
- How Missouri schools are performing.
- How Missouri schools are spending taxpayer money.
- About their children’s physical and mental health and to be informed when concerns arise.
Public Schooling in Partnership with Parents
Schooling works best when parents and educators work together. However, school district policies increasingly undermine such cooperation through a lack of transparency. Missouri’s Sunshine Law is intended to ensure openness in public agencies, yet many school districts routinely claim that fulfilling Sunshine Law requests is prohibitively expensive and then pass those inflated costs on to the requester. This practice effectively blocks Missourians from accessing important information, such as which curriculum materials are being used in their local schools. There is also a growing trend among public schools to withhold information about student health from parents.
The state needs to take action to expand access to information among parents. School districts that fail to comply should be subject to meaningful financial and administrative penalties. Transparency and accountability in local government, including schools, should not be optional. The law must have strong, unambiguous consequences attached to violations of its provisions.
POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS
- Pass a parents’ bill of rights into law so that schools and districts understand the rights and expectations of the parents and taxpayers who fund their operations.
- Ensure that the law includes “teeth”—real consequences for violations—so that it isn’t seen merely as a set of recommendations that can be violated without penalty by school districts.
