Parents Defending Education Major Impact - Parents Defending Education

A sampling of parent wins by PDE

Lawsuits:

PDE is suing an Ohio school district that is compelling student speech on preferred pronouns.
PDE is suing an Iowa school district that is keeping students’ transgender status secret from their parents and compelling student speech on preferred pronouns.
PDE is defending New York City’s specialized school programs in a lawsuit that alleges the programs are racist because of how many students of certain races are in the program.
PDE sued the federal government over their creation of a partisan “parents council.” Instead of letting parents with a variety of viewpoints join, the Department of Education disbanded the council.
PDE sued a Massachusetts school district and stopped their racially segregated “affinity groups” as well as an anti-free speech policy.
PDE has filed amicus briefs in both the 2^nd and 4^th Circuit Courts of Appeals on two Title IX cases in an effort to save girls sports and in the 8^th Circuit Court of Appeals on a free speech case.
PDE filed amicus briefs at the Supreme Court in cases that seek to end race-based admissions in higher education and the policing of speech off campus in K-12 schools.

Exposure & Results:

26 state school board associations terminated their membership with the National School Boards Association (NSBA) after PDE sent emails to 47 state school boards associations, asking them if they agreed with the NSBA comparing parents at school board meetings to “domestic terrorism.”
After PDE helped parents expose efforts to start a Planned Parenthood clinic inside a California high school, the school board postponed the effort indefinitely.
After PDE exposed posters in a California classroom that read “F*** the Police” and “F*** Amerikkka” the posters were removed from the classroom.
After PDE exposed a Virginia high school intentionally leaving off Honors course designation on transcripts, the school reversed course and will now include the designation.
After PDE exposed the Virginia Department of Education’s “Culturally Responsive” 9/11 presentation, the VDOE distanced itself from the training and erased it from their website.
An elite New York prep school canceled a controversial student survey after we helped parents make the questionnaire public.

Public Accountability:

PDE helped parents, grandparents and concerned citizens submit more than 62,000 total comments on Title IX in 2022 & 2023 in an effort to save girls sports and single sex spaces in schools.
PDE has filed 733 public records requests.
- PDE held the National School Boards Association (NSBA) and the Departments of Justice and Education accountable through public records requests after the NSBA sent a letter to President Biden that asserted parents who spoke up at school board meetings were engaging in “domestic terrorism and hate crimes”.
PDE has filed 28 civil rights complaints.
- These have led to 5 investigations of school districts.
PDE President Nicole Neily testified before Congress in defense of parental rights in education.
The Chicago Board of Ethics opened an investigation following a complaint PDE filed against Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot after her campaign emailed Chicago teachers to offer extra credit for students who volunteered on her reelection campaign.

Community Engagement:

PDE partners with, promotes, and trains more than 250 parent organizations across the country who work specifically on political indoctrination in schools, providing them with both the policy knowledge and tactical guidance they need to be more effective advocates in their communities.
PDE translates all educational and engagement guides into Spanish and Chinese.
PDE produces monthly original content that educates members on various education-related topics. Past topics included: School Boards 101, Understanding Activist Jargon, and Restorative Justice.
PDE has conducted polls on race, gender, parental rights and technology to help parents better understand the cultural response to educational issues.

Research and Investigations:

We’ve released several research reports exposing new tracks for malfeasance in schools:

Parental Exclusion Policies: PDE released a list of school districts with transgender/ gender nonconforming student policies on the books that exclude parents; as of June 16, we’ve identified 950 districts covering 17,227 schools, impacting more than 10 million children.
CCP Ties to K-12: PDE uncovered a multi-year partnership with Chinese Communist Party-linked entities to America’s number one high school.
ESG: PDE released an “IncorporatED” research project highlighting how schools adopting ESG is not only leading to ideological lessons in classrooms but also schools prioritizing initiatives based on certain political values.
Districts Partnering with Gender Clinics: We identified gender clinics in San Francisco, Philadelphia & St. Louis working with local districts, offering them guidance on withholding information from families about their children.
“Cracked Foundations” research project: details how five major foundations, including ones led by Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, donated millions of dollars to school districts to advance politically divisive and ideological policies.