SACRAMENTO, Calif., August 7, 2023 – Today Assemblyman Bill Essayli sent a letter to Attorney General Rob Bonta demanding an explanation of the specific legal violations the Chino Valley Unified School District may have committed, and on what basis his department initiated its investigation.
“The need for local school districts to clarify the right of parents to be informed on the affairs of their children is predicated upon faulty advice issued by the California Department of Education (CDE) suggesting that students possess a legally cognizable privacy interest from their parents. The department does not provide any statutory or court authority supporting its position. Never in the history of our jurisprudence have we held that children have a right to privacy from their parents,” Assemblyman Bill Essayli wrote.
100 years of United States Supreme Court precedence has consistently said that parents, not schools, possess the fundamental right to raise their children. More recently, the Court declared in Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U.S. 702 (1997), that the Constitution, and specifically the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, protects the fundamental right of parents to direct the care, upbringing, and education of their children.
Assemblyman Bill Essayli represents the 63rd Assembly District in the California Legislature, which includes the whole cities of Norco, Menifee, Lake Elsinore, and Canyon Lake, as well as portions of the cities of Eastvale, Riverside, and Corona.
