28 States, 71 Bills, and an Education System Transformed

HB 391 (2021)
Trans Sports
Bans trans students at public school from participating in sports programs consistent with their gender identity.

➼ Dispatch from the state: The state’s early-childhood-education secretary resigned after being asked to disavow and remove from instructional materials a book the governor deemed “woke.”

HB 2898 (2021)
Race and Gender Equality
Bans teachers at public school from including in curricula a variety of concepts around race, ethnicity, or sex, including that “an individual, by virtue of the individual’s race, ethnicity, or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously”; that an individual “bears responsibility for actions committed by other members of the same race, ethnic group, or sex”; and that “academic achievement, meritocracy, or traits such as a hard work ethic are racist or sexist or were created by members of a particular race, ethnic group, or sex to oppress members of another race, ethnic group, or sex.” A teacher violating this rule could be suspended or have their teacher’s certificate revoked.

SB 1165 (2022)
Trans Sports
Bans trans girls from participating in girls’ sports programs in public schools.

HB 2439 (2022)
Parental and Public Review, Library Control
Grants parents access to public-school library catalogues and the right to see a list of all materials and books borrowed by their child. Gives the public the right to review public-school library materials.

HB 2161 (2022)
Parental Review
Grants parents access to all of their child’s public-school records, including psychological and counseling records, club participation, and email accounts.

SB 354 (2021)
Trans Sports
Bans trans girls from participating in girls’ sports programs in public schools.

SB 294 (2023)
Race and Gender Equality, Race Education, Queer Education
Bans public K-12 schools from promoting “ideologies, such as Critical Race Theory … that conflict with the principle of equal protection under the law or that encourage students to discriminate.” Also prohibits teachers from providing classroom instruction related to sexual orientation, sexual reproduction, or gender identity through fourth grade.

SB 81 (2023)
Library Control, Parental Review
Opens school employees and librarians to prosecution under state obscenity laws. Also grants parents the right to see a list of school-library books and materials borrowed by their child.

SB 1028 (2021)
Trans Sports
Bans trans girls from participating in girls’ sports programs in public schools.

HB 1467 (2022)
Library Control
Mandates that books in Florida’s K-12 public schools be free of pornography and suited to “student needs,” as determined by a librarian or school media specialist who is now required to have special training. The Florida Freedom to Read project has counted 20 school districts that have pulled books from their shelves in response to this and other laws, and two school districts reportedly removed all books in the school library after the law was passed.

HB 1557, a.k.a. “Don’t Say Gay” (2022)
Queer Education, Parental Review
Bars classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity through third grade. Grants parents extensive rights to make decisions regarding the upbringing and control of their children in a specified manner, often at the expense of school policies. (For example: It bans schools from creating any policies that would stop school employees from telling parents certain information about their children.)

HB 7, a.k.a. Stop WOKE Act (2022)
Race and Gender Equality
Bans teachers at public school from including in curricula a variety of concepts around race, ethnicity, or sex in the guise of prohibiting “stereotyping.” Constitutes any school instruction that says “a person’s moral character or status as either privileged or oppressed is necessarily determined by his or her race, color, national origin, or sex” as discrimination. Also requires that the history of the Holocaust be taught “in a manner that leads to an investigation of human behavior, an understanding of the ramifications of prejudice, racism, and stereotyping, and an examination of what it means to be a responsible and respectful person.”

➼ Dispatch from the state: A substitute teacher in Duval County says he was fired for posting a video showing empty ­bookshelves in the school’s library. A high-school librarian is suing town residents who she says called her a “child predator” for including books like Gender Queer: A Memoir in the library catalogue. An English professor at a Christian university in Palm Beach says his contract was ­terminated early after a parent accused him of “indoctrinating” students through his racial-justice unit.

SB 226 (2022)
Library Control, Parental Review
Allows parents to review instructional and library materials and submit complaints alleging that such material is “harmful to minors.” Schools are required to investigate any allegations within seven business days.

HB 1084 (2022)
Race Education
Bans teachers at public school from including in curricula a variety of concepts around race in the guise of prohibiting “race scapegoating or race stereotyping.” Concepts include that “the United States of America is fundamentally racist”; that “an individual, solely by virtue of his or her race, bears individual responsibility for actions committed in the past by other individuals of the same race”; and that “an individual, solely by virtue of his or her race, should feel anguish, guilt, or any other form of psychological distress.”

HB 500 (2020)
Trans Sports
This bill, which bans trans girls from participating in girls’ sports programs in public schools, was the first of its kind. It is currently blocked by court injunction in Idaho but became the model for bills in at least 22 other states.

HB 377 (2021)
Race and Gender Equality
Declares that the tenets of critical race theory “exacerbate and inflame divisions … in ways contrary to the unity of the nation.” Bans teachers from including any course of instruction that directs students to adopt the idea that “individuals, by virtue of sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, or national origin, are inherently responsible for actions committed in the past by other members of the same.”

HB 314 (2023)
Library Control
Prohibits a school from making certain materials — including those involving any “act” of homosexuality — available to a minor. Gives parents the right to sue schools for their failure to make sure such materials are unavailable. This bill was passed by the legislature but vetoed by the governor and is not in force.

HB 1041 (2022)
Trans Sports
Bans trans girls from participating in girls’ sports programs in public schools.

HB 1447 (2023)
Library Control, Parental and Public Review
Allows any parent or community member within the school district to submit a request to remove “obscene” materials from the school library.

HF 802 (2021)
Race and Gender Equality
Prohibits any mandatory staff training or public-school curricula from teaching or promoting specific concepts in the guise of prohibiting “race or sex stereotyping” or “scapegoating.”

HF 2416 (2022)
Trans Sports
Bans trans girls from participating in girls’ sports programs in public schools.

SB 55 (2021)
Trans Sports
Bans trans girls from participating in girls’ sports programs in public schools. Vetoed by the governor.

SB 160 (2022)
Trans Sports
Bans trans girls from participating in girls’ sports programs in public schools. Vetoed by the governor.

HB 2238 (2023)
Trans Sports
Bans trans girls from participating in girls’ sports programs in public schools. Vetoed by the governor; veto overridden by the legislature.

SB 1 (2022)
Race and Gender Equality, School Activism
Requires public K-12 and charter schools to make all instruction “consistent” with certain ideas related to race, sex, and American history and culture, including the idea that “defining racial disparities solely on the legacy of [slavery] is destructive to the unification of our nation.” In addition, students may not be required or incentivized to advocate on behalf of a position that differs from that of their own position or that of their parent.

SB 83 (2022)
Trans Sports
Bans trans girls from participating in girls’ sports programs in public schools from grades six to 12.

SB 5 (2023)
Parental Review
Grants parents the right to review and object to any instructional material or events that include sexually explicit content. If the parent objects, the school must make sure that the student does not have access to the material or the event.

➼ Dispatch from the state: A music teacher resigned after receiving threats of violence for writing a message of support for the LGBTQ+ community on his classroom’s whiteboard.

SB 44 (2022)
Trans Sports
Bans trans students at public school from participating in sports programs consistent with their gender identity from grades six through 12.

SB 2536 (2021)
Trans Sports
Bans trans girls from participating in girls’ sports programs in public schools from grades six to 12.

SB 2113 (2022)
Race and Gender Equality
Bans public schools and institutions of higher learning from directing students to believe certain concepts around race and gender, including the idea that “individuals should be adversely treated on the basis of their sex, race, ethnicity, religion or national origin.” Bans schools and institutions from making any distinction or classification of students based on race. State funds will be prohibited to institutions that violate these provisions.

HB 1315 (2023)
Library Control
Requires schools to make sure that any databases that students have access to comply with certain regulations, including that resources have safety policies and technology protection that prevent children from seeing “obscene” or “inappropriate” materials. This includes any act of sexual intercourse, “normal or perverted,” or any other act that may be “lustful, erotic, shameful” to the “average person.”

➼ Dispatch from the state: An assistant principal was fired for reading pupils a children’s book, I Need a New Butt! The ­superintendent called the book “inappropriate,” as it “described butts in various colors, shapes, and sizes.”

SB 775 (2022)
Library Control
Makes providing “explicit sexual material” to a student by a teacher, librarian, substitute teacher, teacher’s assistant, or school bus driver a Class A misdemeanor.

HB 112 (2021)
Trans Sports
Bans trans girls from participating in girls’ sports programs in public schools from grades six to 12.

HB 234 (2023)
Library Control
Opens school and library employees to prosecution for obscenity offenses.

HB 359 (2023)
Library Control
Bans drag story hour and any “sexually oriented performances” in public schools. Schools that violate the law will be fined $5,000, and a teacher or administrator involved will have their certificate revoked for one year. Teachers or administrators who violate the law a second time will have their certificate permanently revoked. This law passed both houses of the Montana legislature last week, and the governor has until May 11 to either sign or veto it.

HB 2 (2021)
Race and Gender Equality
Prohibits public-school students from being “taught, instructed, inculcated, or compelled to express belief in, or support for” certain concepts around race, gender, ethnicity, and equality. Concepts include “that an individual, by virtue of his or her age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, creed, color, marital status, familial status, mental or physical disability, religion, or national origin, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.” Public employees are prohibited from receiving adverse consequences for refusing to participate in any training, program, or activity that expresses such beliefs.

HB 324 (2021)
Race and Gender Equality
Bans public schools from promoting a variety of concepts around race and sex, including that “a meritocracy is inherently racist or sexist,” that the United States “was created by members of a particular race or sex for the purpose of oppressing members of another race or sex,” and that “the United States government should be violently overthrown.” Vetoed by the governor.

HB 1508 (2021)
Race Education
Prohibits any instruction related to critical race theory in public K-12 schools. Defines critical race theory as “the theory that racism is not merely the product of learned individual bias or prejudice, but that racism is systemically embedded in American society and the American legal system to facilitate racial inequality.”

HB 1298 (2021)
Trans Sports
Bans trans students at public school from participating in sports programs consistent with their gender identity in elementary and secondary school. This bill was vetoed, but the legislature overturned the governor’s veto on subsequent versions of the bill.

HB 1249 (2023)
Trans Sports
Bans trans girls from participating in girls’ sports programs in public schools from grades K-12.

HB 1489 (2023)
Trans Sports
Bans trans girls from participating in girls’ sports programs in higher education.

SB 2360 (2023)
Library Control
Opens school employees to prosecution for obscenity offenses. Vetoed by the governor.

SB 2247 (2023)
Race and Gender Equality
Prohibits public colleges and universities from requiring any orientation, training, or noncredit seminar containing certain concepts related to race and sex. Concepts include the idea that an individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, is inherently privileged, and that “by virtue of an individual’s race or sex, a member of a race is inherently racist or inclined to oppress others, or a member of a sex is inherently sexist or inclined to oppress others,” as well as that “the rule of law does not exist, but instead is a series of power relationships and struggles among racial or other groups.” Affirms that a student or teacher may not be penalized in any way for opposing such concepts.

➼ Dispatch from the state: A school-district superintendent sent an email that called for a “Christ-centered Republic” and declared his district “will continue to teach the Christian heritage and origins of the ­American Republic.”

HB 1775 (2021)
Race and Gender Equality, Queer Education
Bans mandatory gender or sexual diversity training or counseling for students of higher education. Bans any orientation or training that contains “race or sex stereotyping.”

SB 2 (2022)
Trans Sports
Bans trans girls from participating in girls’ sports programs in public schools.

HB 3702 (2022)
Library Control
Opens public and charter school, library, and university employees to prosecution for obscenity offenses.

➼ Dispatch from the state: After a parent took issue with a single graphic novel his ­daughter had borrowed, her school district decided to recall almost 3,000 graphic titles from its library.

HB 972 (2021)
Trans Sports
Bans trans girls from participating in girls’ sports programs in public schools. Vetoed by the governor.

HB 4100 (2021)
Race and Gender Equality
Bans public schools from using any funds to teach or train any employee to adopt certain concepts, or to approve curricula or learning materials that “inculcate” certain concepts. Concepts include the idea that “an individual, by virtue of his race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously,” and that “fault, blame, or bias should be assigned to a race or sex, or to members of a race or sex because of their race or sex.” In addition, bans state funds from going to a school that is “a member of an association with policies that discriminate or afford different treatment of students based on race or national origin.”

HB 4608 (2022)
Trans Sports
Bans trans students at public school from participating in sports programs consistent with their gender identity.

➼ Dispatch from the state: The Berkeley County school board, backed by Moms for Liberty, fired the superintendent and banned critical race theory. The board’s former chair said it was a “political witch hunt.”

HB 1012 (2022)
Race and Gender Equality
Bars institutions of higher education from compelling a student to adopt the idea that “an individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of the individual’s race, color, religion, ethnicity, or national origin.”

SB 46 (2022)
Trans Sports
Bans trans students at public school from participating in sports programs consistent with their gender identity.

SB 623 (2021)
Race and Gender Equality
Prohibits public schools from including in curricula certain concepts, including that “this state or the United States is fundamentally or irredeemably racist or sexist.” Does allow for “impartial discussion of controversial aspects of history,” but requires the commissioner to withhold state funds from any school not in compliance.

SB 228 (2021)
Trans Sports
Requires students taking part in athletics in middle and high school to supply their birth certificate to the school.

SB 2292 (2022)
Library Control, Parental Review
Under previous law, it was not a criminal offense for a teacher to distribute “obscene material” to a minor if the teacher had an educational justification. This bill deletes the educational justification, making it a criminal offense.

SB 2153 (2022)
Trans Sports
Bans trans girls from participating in girls’ sports programs in public institutions of higher education and private institutions whose teams compete against public institutions.

HB 2670 (2022)
Race and Gender Equality
Prohibits institutions of higher education from requiring any trainings that include concepts like “this state or the United States is fundamentally or irredeemably racist or sexist” or “the rule of law does not exist, but instead is a series of power relationships and struggles among racial or other groups.”

HB 1895 (2022)
Trans Sports
Punishes any public school that “refuses to determine a student’s gender, for purposes of participation in school sports, by the student’s sex at the time of birth” by withholding funds.

SB 1059 (2023)
Library Control
Makes it a Class E felony for a book publisher, distributor, or seller to knowingly sell or distribute obscene matter to a public school serving any of the grades K-12. Violators can be fined up to $100,000.

HB 1376 (2023)
Race and Gender Equality
Justifies “increased institutional transparency and oversight” in institutions of higher education in order to “lessen the risk of diminished excellence resulting from the imposition or advocacy of divisive concepts.”

SB 3 (2021)
Race and Gender Equality, Race Education, Parental Review, School Activism
Prohibits public schools from including in curricula or training employees in certain concepts around race and sex, including that “the advent of slavery in the territory that is now the United States constituted the true founding of the United States,” or that “with respect to their relationship to American values, slavery and racism are anything other than deviations from, betrayals of, or failures to live up to the authentic founding principles of the United States.” It also specifically bans schools and state agencies from requiring an understanding of “The 1619 Project.” The bill also prohibits teachers from being “compelled to discuss a particular current event or widely debated and currently controversial issue.” If they choose to do so, teachers must not give deference to any one perspective. The bill also bans awarding credit for a student’s activism, lobbying their elected officials, or advocacy for a social or political issue. The bill requires schools to grant parents login credentials to review all instructional materials.

HB 25 (2021)
Trans Sports
Bans trans students at public school from participating in sports programs consistent with their gender identity.

➼ Dispatch from the state: 26 bills to regulate school and school library activity have been introduced in the state so far this year. Some teachers in the Dallas Independent School District received an email asking them to rat out colleagues for promoting “radical politics and weird theories,” like “predatory gender fluidity.”

HB 38 (2021)
Library Control
Requires public schools to have safety policies and technology protection measures that prohibit students from using any online resources to view obscene or pornographic material.

HB 374 (2022)
Library Control
Prohibits “sensitive materials” in public schools. Defines sensitive materials as materials pornographic or “indecent.”

HB 11 (2022)
Trans Sports
Bans trans girls from participating in girls’ sports programs in public schools. Currently blocked by court injunction.

SB 55 (2023)
Public Review
Requires schools to establish an “open process” in order to select and approve instructional classroom materials. The process must involve parents and the recommended instructional material must be posted online for public review.

HB 465 (2023)
Parental Review
Requires school districts to provide an online platform where parents can track any books their children borrow from the school library.

HB 427 (2023)
Race and Gender Equality, School Prayer
Requires all curriculum in K-12 schools to align with certain concepts related to race and gender, including the idea that “no individual is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously, solely by virtue of the individual’s race, sex, or sexual orientation” and that “an individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, does not bear responsibility for actions that other members of the same race or sex committed in the past or present.” In addition, the bill prohibits public schools from denying the practice of prayer or religious devotionals.

SB 656 (2022)
Parental Review
Grants parents the right to review instructional material that includes sexually explicit content and the ability to request that their child be provided with alternative material.

HB 3293 (2021)
Trans Sports
Bans trans girls from participating in girls’ sports programs in public schools, if the program is based upon competitive skill or the activity involved is a contact sport. Currently blocked by court injunction.

AB 411 (2022)
Race and Gender Equality, Library Control
Prohibits schools from including curricula containing certain concepts around race and sex. Concepts include the idea that “an individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, bears responsibility for acts committed in the past by other individuals of the same race or sex.” The bill also requires each school board to post all curricula online. Vetoed by the governor.

SF 133 (2023)
Trans Sports
Bans trans girls from participating in girls’ sports programs in public schools.