Student, parental rights bills are advancing in Washington state. Is a ballot fight next?

Washington lawmakers are advancing changes to rights for parents and students in schools, teeing up what could become a fight at the ballot box this fall.

The state Senate on Friday approved House Bill 1296, which partly revises a parents' rights initiative enacted last year. The measure passed along party lines, 30 to 19.

It's the latest development in a years-long debate in Olympia over the state's role in supporting and facilitating more transparency between schools and parents.

The bill's approval in the Senate brings the measure closer to becoming law — though the House is considering similar legislation. The two chambers will need to agree on a final version before sending it to the governor for his signature.

Even if this year's proposed changes become law, that might not be the final word on the issue. Let's Go Washington, the Conservative-backed group behind last year's parents' rights initiative, has filed two new initiatives that aim to repeal this year's proposed changes. If those initiatives gain enough signatures by a July deadline, the question will go to voters in November.

The pair of proposals this year — HB 1296 and Senate Bill 5181 — have drawn ire from supporters of last year's parents' rights initiative who worry that the new bills would undo their efforts.

Ahead of Friday's Senate vote on HB 1296, Republicans in the chamber also took issue with the part of the bill that creates a new complaint process for schools that violate students' rights. The measure, as it's currently written, would grant authority to the state's top education official to enforce those rights, in part by withholding up to 20% of funding from schools that don't comply.

"This bill weaponizes those laws," said Sen. John Braun (R-Centralia). "This is dead wrong for children if we want to give them the education they need and that they deserve."

But Democrats, who control the majority in the Legislature, have said this year's changes are needed in order to bring the parents' rights regulations into alignment with longstanding privacy rules, offer more clarity, and hold schools that fail to uphold student protections accountable.

"Confusion and inconsistencies with [existing] policy are happening right now," said Sen. Claire Wilson (D-Federal Way). "We need the bill to go into effect as soon as possible."

In addition to revising state law around parents' rights, the bill also creates a new list of rights and anti-discrimination protections for students. Backers of the proposal like Sen. T'wina Nobles (D-Fircrest) say it will help protect vulnerable children, including LGBTQ kids.

"We run public schools that are for the public — for everyone," Nobles said. "And while this bill is not just to protect students that identify as LGBTQ, it protects students that have a variety of differences."

The Senate-approved version of HB 1296 would remove the right for parents to access their child's school-based medical records, grant schools more time to respond to records requests, and clarify other rights for parents to access their kids' education information. It requires schools to provide parents immediate notification if their child is the alleged victim of a crime or interrogated by law enforcement on school grounds during the school day, and it says that children may not be removed from school grounds during the school day without parental authorization.

Ahead of the vote, Republicans offered several amendments to the bill, mainly aimed at changing the new complaint process created by the legislation.

Sen. Chris Gildon (R-Puyallup) proposed removing the language in the bill that would allow the withholding of state funds from schools.

"I find it very ironic that in a bill that's designed to protect students and student rights, that you would withhold funding that's necessary to keep students from being harmed," Gildon said.

Gildon's amendment was rejected along party lines.