Parental Rights

New Resource! The Constitution protects your God-given rights as a parent to raise your children with your values. But governments and radical school boards are trying to insert themselves and their harmful ideology between you and your child. Download ADF’s free Parents’ Toolkit on Critical Theory today.

Defending Parents' Rights

Parents take care of us before we can take care of ourselves. They bring us into the world. They teach us to walk, to talk, to love. They prepare us to enter society and live as upstanding citizens.

Of all the people who share in shaping a child’s moral character and the adults they become—from teachers and coaches to spiritual mentors, extended family, and others—parents have far and away the deepest and most enduring influence. The men and women we become often reflect the men and women our parents are.

Everyone should care about how children are raised. They become our nation’s leaders, after all. Everyone should also be able to agree that, in nearly every case, parents are best positioned to protect their children’s health and welfare.

Parents have a fundamental human right to direct the upbringing of their children

Although the law recognizes the rights of parents, parental rights are under increasing attack from public school indoctrination and state governments. Sometimes, tragically, parents fail at providing their children’s most basic needs. When that happens, the government plays an important role. But the government should never replace parents.

Alliance Defending Freedom is working to achieve a Generational Win for parental rights. We litigate precedent-setting cases to protect parents and help to shape and defend public policy that enshrines parents’ rights as fundamental.

Our Promise to
America’s Parents

Parents have a natural right to make educational and medical decisions for their children. But courts have not consistently protected those rights from government interference and invasion. Parents need laws that provide government Accountability, Choice, and Transparency (ACT).

Read the Promise

Defending Your Parental Rights

Together with like-minded partners, ADF advocates for parents’ rights in three key areas by engaging in strategic litigation, influencing law, and promoting policies that protect parents and children.

Public School Curricula

Many public schools are indoctrinating students in harmful views of human sexuality and race, injecting ideas from critical race and critical gender theories into classrooms. We help parents and teachers challenge this indoctrination of students.

Medical Decision-making

Some public schools encourage students to identify as the opposite sex at school and hide it from parents. And some government officials pressure parents to “transition” their children under threat of abuse charges. We defend parents’ rights to make medical decisions for their children.

Adoption and Foster Parents

Some states refuse to allow prospective parents into the foster and adoption system based on their views about sexuality and gender. ADF works to ensure that people of faith can give kids loving homes without being forced to compromise their beliefs.