H.R. 5116 — Empower Parents to Protect their Kids Act

This section states six congressional findings asserting that certain school district policies on student gender identity—such as withholding information from parents, maintaining secret records, and facilitating social transitions without consent—violate parental rights under the Constitution and federal statutes, increase risks of medical interventions, and contravene Executive Order 14191 signed January 29, 2025.

This section conditions federal funding for elementary and secondary schools on compliance with requirements concerning parental consent and transparency for students under 18 years of age regarding accommodations or actions affirming a purported identity incongruent with the student's sex (i.e., gender transition). Specifically, schools must (1) obtain express parental consent before proceeding with such accommodations, facilitating adoption of such an identity, or referring students to third-party medical providers for gender transition procedures; (2) refrain from facilitating, encouraging, or coercing students to withhold information from parents about such identities; (3) not withhold or hide related information from parents, including student discomfort with their sex or desires for gender transition; and (4) not encourage, pressure, or coerce parents or students to pursue such interventions. The section includes rules of construction preserving school employees' ability to contact legal authorities about imminent physical safety threats based on reasonable suspicion of physical abuse as defined in 18 U.S.C. §1169 (i.e., certain injuries not justified by accident or sexual offenses against children) and affirming parental due process rights. To ensure compliance, federal agency heads must require state and local educational agency grant applications to describe implementation steps, provide schools' written policies to agencies and families, and post policies on school websites. The section authorizes civil actions by qualified parties against schools or governmental entities for designated violations (i.e., actual or threatened noncompliance), without exhausting administrative remedies. Courts must grant injunctive and declaratory relief, reasonable attorneys' fees to prevailing plaintiffs, and payments for necessary treatments to repair harm from gender transition; prevailing defendants may recover fees if the suit is frivolous. The section defines key terms, including female and male (based on biological reproductive systems for eggs or sperm), sex (biologically determined male or female), gender transition (process of adopting a self-proclaimed identity different from sex, potentially with social, legal, or physical changes), and others adopting Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. §7801) meanings for schools.