EXCLUSIVE — Conservative firebrand Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) introduced legislation Tuesday that would strengthen parental access to student health records under family privacy laws.
If passed into law, the “Parent’s Right to Know Act” would amend the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act to ensure that parents have access to a student’s medical and counseling records after the Biden administration issued guidance earlier this year requiring written consent for the disclosure of such documentation if the student is a minor attending a postsecondary institution.
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“The federal government should not be inhibiting parents’ ability to see records that could affect their children’s upbringing,” Gaetz told the Washington Examiner in a statement. “My bill reinforces the right for parents to access medical and counseling record[s] of their children, lifting the veil of secrecy in Biden’s Education Department.”
The Biden administration’s guidelines on FERPA, released in April, primarily reiterated long-standing FERPA policies that require students age 18 or older to provide written consent for their parents to have access to health records. But the guidelines also said that any students attending an institution of postsecondary education also had to provide written consent, even if they are not yet 18.
The guidelines come as parental rights become increasingly entangled with transgender rights. Schools nationwide have adopted policies that barred school officials from informing minor students’ parents if they identify as transgender and have asked to use a different name at school. The policies have drawn legal challenges against school districts by parents all over the country.
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In his statement following the introduction of the bill, Gaetz reiterated that parents must be able to review their child’s health records.
“Parents don’t just have a ‘right’ to know what’s happening in their children’s lives at school — they have a non-negotiable claim to it,” Gaetz said.
