By unanimous consent in 1994, Congress established the fourth Sunday of July as National Parents' Day to honor and celebrate the crucial role that parents play in all of our lives.
This year, National Parents' Day falls on July 28.
Convention of States Action believes that strong parents who are enthusiastically involved in the upbringing and education, health, and the development of the religious life of their children are essential to reinforcing the foundations of self-government and liberty upon which our republic was founded.
In that spirit, COSA is not only working to call an Article V convention to rein in the overreach of the federal government, but actively involved in supporting and advancing policies and legislation across the country that reaffirm parental rights and block attempts by government entities to interfere with or subvert those rights.
In recent years across the country there have been seemingly endless examples of public school teachers, administrators, school boards, and state and federal officials who often ignore or are outright hostile toward parents who attempt to exercise their fundamental rights to influence, participate in, and oversee the education and well-being of their children.
Local matters of education are subject to detailed and intrusive centralized control. This results in astonishing waste, sometimes offensive and outrageous instruction and programming, medical and mental health care and advice given without parental notice or permission, and the erosion of traditional concepts of public education, liberty, and parental rights.
COS grassroots activists and leaders understand that for our republic to function properly and according to its founding principles, the fundamental rights of parents must not be abridged. To that end, COS volunteers are active in state legislatures from coast to coast to support legislation that protects the rights of parents and children.
For example, COS activists in Tennessee enthusiastically and successfully lobbied members of the Tennessee General Assembly to approve "The Families' Rights and Responsibilities Act", which codified a fundamental principle of self-governance -- consent.
The bill, which was signed into law by Tennessee governor Bill Lee on May 28, 2024, established and affirmed the proper relationship between schools, teachers and administrators, parents, and children by reserving to parents all parental rights without interference from government entities regarding curriculum, extra-curricular activities, and medical decisions.
The grassroots are also active in Oklahoma in support of SB 1563, a bill that modifies procedural aspects of the existing Parents' Bill of Rights to enforce timely notification by schools to parents concerning rights to review books and other materials that may be presented in schools, the requirement for written parental consent for various activities, in addition to outlining disciplinary measures against school officials who violate such rights.
COS activists are also working to support similar bills in states such as South Carolina, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
On this National Parents' Day, we at COSA salute and actively support parents and their right to instruct and guide their children in the best way they see fit without undue and unjust intrusion from overarching state power.
To add your name to those who support an Article V convention to propose constitutional amendments to curtail the power of the federal government, sign the petition below:
