HB 1739 — Enacts provisions governing public elementary and secondary school students

Bill Text

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This bill amends 3 section(s) of the Missouri Revised Statutes: Section 161.841, RSMo; Section 170.385, RSMo; Section 170.386, RSMo.

• Section 161.841, RSMo

  Rights Act of 2024". 2. (1) As used in this section, the term "parent" means a parent or legal guardian of a child enrolled in a school. (2) As used in this section, the term "school" or "schools" shall mean a public school or school district as such terms are defined in section 160.011, including a charter school as defined in section 160.400 and any virtual school or virtual provider authorized under the provisions of section 161.670. following rights to access records maintained by schools and the individual attendance centers of such schools in which their children are enrolled in a timely manner upon request as follows: (a) The right to inspect materials provided to their minor child within two business days upon request including, but not limited to, curricula, books, materials, and other instructional materials, but excluding testing and examination materials in accordance with section 610.021; bold-face (b) The right to receive upon request the name of any person who has taught their minor child including, but not limited to, guest lecturers and outside presenters; (The right to receive information about the names of individuals and organizations receiving school contracts and funding in the school in which their child is enrolled, provided that no personally identifiable information about any student is released; (d) The right to inspect personally identifiable education records, medical or otherwise, concerning their minor child, in accordance with state and federal law, provided that such disclosure does not violate privacy and confidentiality rights; (e) The right to access information about the collection and transmission of their minor child's personally identifiable education records, in accordance with state and federal law; (f) The right to know about records regarding situations affecting their minor child's safety in school, provided that such disclosure does not violate privacy and confidentiality rights; and (The right to receive information about any school-sponsored event or activity, provided that no personally identifiable information about any student is released. (2) Where the curricular materials being made available to parents for review are proprietary, subject to copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property protection, the review process shall include technical and procedural safeguards to ensure that the materials are not able to be widely disseminated to the general public in violation of the intellectual property rights of the publisher or any contractual agreements between the publisher and the school, and that content validity is not undermined. 4. No school shall require nondisclosure agreements or similar forms for a parent's review of curricula. Each school shall allow parents, within two business days upon request, to review or to make a copy of nonproprietary curriculum documents or to receive such documents in an electronic format, provided that no request would violate copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property protection or cause an infringement of copyright protections provided under the federal Copyright Act of 1976 (17 U.S.C. Sections 101 et seq.), as amended. If more than twenty pages are being copied using the school's equipment, the school may, at the school's discretion, charge the parent a fee not to exceed ten cents per page for a paper copy not larger than nine by fourteen inches, with the hourly fee for duplicating time not to exceed the average hourly rate of pay for clerical staff of the school. 5. (1) As used in this subsection, "biometric data" means any information, regardless of how it is captured, converted, stored, or shared, that is based on an individual's biometric identifier and used to identify an individual. (2) No school shall collect any biometric data of a minor child without obtaining written parental consent before collecting such data, except for biometric data necessary to create and issue appropriate school identification cards. Any

  amended

• Section 170.385, RSMo

  other administrative official at a public elementary or secondary school or public charter school shall encourage a student under eighteen years of age to adopt a gender identity or sexual orientation. 2. As used in this section, the following terms shall mean: ("Gender identity", the preconceived notion of someone's psychological, behavioral, social, and cultural aspects of being a biological male or biological female. For the purposes of this section, a biological male shall be someone with the biological indicators of a male in the context of reproductive potential or capacity, such as the presence of a Y chromosome, naturally occurring sex hormones, gonads, and nonambiguous external genitalia present at birth. A biological female shall be someone with the biological indicators of a female in the context of reproductive potential or capacity, such as the absence of a Y chromosome, naturally occurring sex hormones, gonads, and nonambiguous internal and external genitalia present at birth; ("Sexual orientation", one's actual or perceived emotional or physical attraction to, or romantic or physical relationships with, members of the same gender, members of a different gender, or members of any gender; or the lack of any emotional

  amended

• Section 170.386, RSMo

  (1) "Documented identity", a student's registered gender or sex as confirmed by the student's parent when enrolling the student in a school. If a student's parent does not register such student's gender or sex when enrolling the student in a school, such student's documented identity shall be the student's biological sex as correctly stated on the student's official birth certificate as described in subsection 11 of this section or, if the student's official birth certificate is unobtainable, another government record; (2) "Parent", the parent or legal guardian of a student; (3) "Personal pronouns", pronouns used to refer to persons. Female personal pronouns are "she", "her", or "hers", and male personal pronouns are "he", "him", or "his"; (4) "School", any public elementary or secondary school or public charter school; (5) "School official", any school official at a public elementary or secondary school or public charter school, including nurses, counselors, teachers, principals, and other contracted personnel; (6) "Student", any person who attends a public elementary or secondary school or public charter school; (7) "Teacher", any person who is duly certified under the laws governing the certification of teachers including, but not limited to, any classroom teacher, school counselor, substitute teacher, supervisor, principal, supervising principal, superintendent, or assistant superintendent. 2. If a student approaches a school official to express discomfort or confusion about the student's documented identity, the school official shall notify the student's parent of the discussion within twenty-four hours. 3. If a student asks a school official to refer to the student using personal pronouns that are associated with a gender other than the student's documented identity, the school official shall notify the student's parent of the discussion within twenty-four hours. 4. A school official shall not allow a student to use a name in class other than the name provided by the student's parent when registering the student without first obtaining written permission from the student's parent. 5. A school official shall not encourage a student to wear or not wear any particular item of clothing without first obtaining written permission from the student's parent, unless such clothing is necessary to enforce the school dress code; participate in school sports, clubs, or extracurricular activities; or to ensure a student's physical safety. 6. A school official shall not encourage a student to pursue gender reassignment therapy or any medical or surgical service that seeks to surgically alter or remove healthy physical or anatomical characteristics or features that are typical for the individual's biological sex in order to instill or create physiological or anatomical characteristics that resemble a sex different from the individual's biological sex, including, but not limited to, genital or nongenital gender reassignment surgery performed for the purpose of assisting an individual with a gender transition. 7. Any public school employee who discloses a violation of this section by a school official shall be protected from any manner of retaliation as set forth in section 105.055. 8. (1) If a school district discovers that a teacher has knowingly violated any provision of this section, the district shall file charges seeking to suspend or revoke the teacher's license to teach based upon charges of incompetence, immorality, or neglect of duty, pursuant to the provisions of section 168.071. (2) The state board of education shall promptly investigate any claim from a parent of a public school student that a teacher of such student has knowingly violated any provision of this section in relation to such student. If the state board of education finds that such claim is valid, the state board of education shall, upon hearing, suspend or revoke such teacher's license to teach based upon charges of incompetence, immorality, or neglect of duty,

  amended

Action History

1. May 17, 2024

   Referred: General Laws(H)

2. January 04, 2024

   Read Second Time (H)

3. January 03, 2024

   Read First Time (H)

4. December 04, 2023

   Prefiled (H)

Sponsors

• Doug Richey · Primary
• Brian Seitz · Cosponsor
• Josh Hurlbert · Cosponsor

Subjects