Virginia's new education policies protect children, parental rights
The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Kate Anderson, director of the ADF Center for Parental Rights, regarding new policies the Virginia Department of Education announced Tuesday that ensure respect for the role of parents in directing the education and health care of their children:
“ADF supports Virginia’s new education policies, which help ensure respect for parental rights and protect children’s mental and physical health. Parents are the primary caregivers of their children and are in the best position to know what’s best for their own kids’ education and health care needs. Government officials and school administrators can’t usurp the role of parents in making those critical decisions for their children. As the Promise to America’s Parents explains, parents need accountability, choice, and transparency to be able to direct their children’s upbringing, education, and care. Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s new policies help provide that and also protect girls’ safety and privacy by ensuring they can compete on sex-separated sports teams and use girls’ only locker rooms, showers, and bathrooms. Further, we applaud these policies because they restore a culture of free speech and religious liberty for students and teachers at Virginia’s public schools.”
ADF submitted a formal comment in support of the new policies in October of last year. ADF attorneys are litigating several cases in Virginia challenging school districts that have adopted policies that harm teachers’ rights and usurp the rights of parents, including Harrisonburg City Public School Board, Loudoun County School Board, and Albemarle County School Board.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
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ABOUT Kate Anderson
Kate Anderson serves as senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, where she is the director of the Center for Parental Rights. In this role, she leads the team working to ensure schools respect the role of parents in directing the upbringing, education, and health care of their children. In 2023, Anderson, together with allied attorneys, successfully defended parents in Wisconsin, and her team is actively engaged in many other states and courts protecting the fundamental rights of parents. Anderson's work at ADF began in 2015, focusing on protecting the conscience rights of individuals being unjustly compelled to forfeit their beliefs under threat of government retaliation, heavy fines, or other punishment. Prior to joining ADF, Anderson was an associate attorney with Ellis, Li & McKinstry, PLLC, in Seattle, where she litigated both civil and criminal cases. She obtained her law degree magna cum laude in 2009 from Gonzaga University School of Law, where she served on the Gonzaga Law Review . She is admitted to the state bars of Arizona and Washington, the U.S. Supreme Court, and several federal district and appellate courts.