A bill that reaffirms parental rights to their student’s health information is set to become law on July 1 after Gov. Mark Gordon allowed Senate File 9 to pass without his signature March 6.

The bill lays out parents’ rights to be notified regarding educational, physical, mental and emotional health of students, as well as a complaint process if these rights are violated. The bill also requires that beginning next school year, districts will provide information regarding “routine health services” provided by the schools. Parents will have the right to decline any of these services. The bill makes clear that this does not prevent the school from providing first aid or calling emergency responders if needed. 

Additionally, schools must get written or verbal consent from a parent or guardian before administering a well-being questionnaire or health screening.

“Park 1 is in full support of parental rights, and though this bill does very little that is not already required by law, we will review all policies and procedures in the coming months to ensure we are in full compliance with all
provisions of the new law,” Park County School District 1 Superintendent Jay Curtis said.

The bill received amendments in the Legislature including wording that requires consent from parents before any “trainings, courses, or classes that address sexual orientation or gender identity,” as well as parental rights to information regarding the students educational health.

The passage of SF 9 was criticized by the American Civil Liberties Union for disclosing students' lives without their consent. The union said that the bill requires schools “to ‘out’ gay, transgender or gender-nonconforming youth to their parents.”

SF 9 is a revised version of last year’s SF 117 which put more focus on sexual orientation and identity in the classroom in addition to parents rights to know their student’s health information.

“The ACLU of Wyoming opposed Senate File 9. People — children and adults — have a constitutional right not to have intimate facts about their lives disclosed without their consent. That includes their sexual orientation or whether they are transgender. Children do not give up their constitutional rights by enrolling in public school and have the right to keep certain information private,” the release said.

In a Facebook post the Wyoming Freedom Caucus celebrated the passage of the bill and noted the absence of Gordon’s signature.

“Thanks to the efforts of the WYFC, schools must inform parents about their kids' wellbeing, must obtain parental consent for health screenings, and must not indoctrinate children in radical gender ideology,” the post said.

An amendment with wording protecting mandatory reporting was added by Rep. Barry Crago (R-Buffalo) to protect parents’ rights while also allowing schools to act on potential abuse.

The intent of removing the original section was to prevent schools from withholding student information from parents out of the fear it could possibly lead to abuse. During the 12th day of the House floor session Rep. Jeremy Haroldson (R-Wheatland) proposed removing the section in order to make it clear that in situations involving potential violence, schools will have to contact law enforcement. 

If parents are suspected to be the abusers they are not notified by schools, Curtis said. He added that if they are suspected and notified it can jeopardize an investigation.

“The conversation that we’re going to have here is the same conversation we had before. Is it the role of the school or the teacher to be ‘thought police’ on what they feel or what they think may be the outcome of a situation?” Haroldson said, adding, “Ultimately parents deserve the right through their parental rights to be able to be informed about what is going on with their student, the decisions they make, so just to bring our statue into uniformity I would ask that we remove this section.”

During the floor session Crago said he was OK with removing the language but a “carve out” was needed for mandatory reporting, “If a student comes in and says my parent is doing this to me we don’t have to notify the parent, we can actually do an investigation.”

The mandatory reporting law cited in the bill does not explicitly address protocol regarding parent notification. 

Crago did not respond by press time regarding comment on the amendment.