Jason Miyares, Attorney General of Virginia, said that parents should play a central role in decisions affecting their children in schools. The statement was made on the social media platform X.
“Parents always matter,” said Jason Stuart Redding Miyares, Virginia State Executive – Attorney General. “A simple concept proving difficult for Virginia Democrats to understand.”
Recent developments in Virginia school board policies have focused on parental rights, particularly concerning gender identity and student privacy. According to the Washington Post, several Northern Virginia school districts risk losing federal funding for maintaining protections for transgender students, despite state law affirming gender identity rights. Concurrently, statewide policies such as a new cell phone ban reflect broader debates over balancing student autonomy with parental oversight.
Virginia law mandates that school divisions notify parents annually of their rights under the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act. According to the Virginia Department of Education, these rights include reviewing student records, requesting corrections, and obtaining information on compliance matters. Such provisions underscore the state’s emphasis on transparency and parental access to school processes.
Parental rights laws vary significantly across the United States. As reported by Education Week, Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act restricts classroom discussions of sexual orientation and mandates parental notification. In contrast, states like Arizona and Georgia have enacted similar measures. By comparison, Virginia emphasizes parental record access while maintaining protections for student privacy, placing it in a more moderate position among states.
Miyares has served as Virginia’s Attorney General since January 2022 after three terms in the Virginia House of Delegates. According to the Office of the Attorney General, he previously worked as a prosecutor in Virginia Beach and earned his J.D. from William & Mary Law School. A Republican, Miyares is noted as the first Hispanic American elected to statewide office in Virginia.
