PROTECT Kids Act

The legislation has its roots in Florida governor Ron DeSantis' push to reform education across the state. The first major bill to pass was the Parental Rights in Education Act, which was signed into law in March 2022 and became effective the following July. Among other provisions, the legislation most controversially prohibits the instruction of gender identity and sexual orientation from kindergarten to third grade in Florida public schools.[1]

The act received massive protests from numerous organizations in government, human rights advocacy, education, and business, most notably provoking walkouts among middle and high school students across the United States and inciting a feud between DeSantis and The Walt Disney Company which resulted in the repeal of the Reedy Creek Improvement Act and the special taxation district housing Walt Disney World. With the passage of the law, numerous other state legislatures introduced their own versions of the act, with many bills in states where their legislatures are dominated by Republicans passing and receiving a signature from their governors. Some Republican lawmakers have introduced national derivative legislation previously, including the Stop the Sexualization of Children Act, which failed to pass either house of Congress prior to the conclusion of the 117th session.[2][3][4]

The legislation's primary method of enforcing its provisions is by restricting federal funding to public schools, though is limited only to elementary and middle schools. Under the bill, practices that schools can engage in which can restrict their access to federal funding include enabling students to change their preferred gender pronouns and gender markers, and "sex-based accommodations". These are meant to include bathrooms and locker rooms.[5]

Tim Scott initially announced the legislation on his website via a blog post released on September 20, 2022. Though the bill was unable to be passed in the 117th congress before its conclusion, the legislation was reintroduced, this time with Rick Scott as a cosponsor, in the 118th congress on February 1, 2023.[6]

In the House of Representatives, Walberg's legislation was advanced in the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on March 9, 2023, and merged into H.R 5, the Parental Bill of Rights Act.[7]

The bills sponsors have argued that schools should not be used to teach about sexual orientation. In his initial announcement for the legislation, Tim Scott outlined his belief that schools are "indoctrinating" children into "woke ideology" at a young age. Scott believes that parents should know about their children's sexual orientation rather than having it kept secret from them, blaming the status quo on "radical and secretive gender policies [which] have shut parents out of the conversation and broken their trust". Scott phrases his bill as something which will "safeguard parental rights" and prevent an "activist ideology” from being too prominent in schools.[8]

• Text of the legislation