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Tennessee’s largest school district is reaching significantly fewer students in school-wide suicide and bullying prevention trainings, and Memphis leaders say it’s because of a controversial parents’ rights law passed in 2024.
Donna Goings, who leads the mental health centers in Memphis-Shelby County Schools, said the number of students attending these “lifesaving” assemblies fell by two-thirds last year. That’s because the Tennessee Families’ Rights and Responsibilities Act requires districts to receive verbal or written consent from parents for psychological and other health care services.
Goings said the majority of those permission slips aren’t brought back.
“Before it was passive consent, so if students didn’t bring the [permission] form back, we assumed that it was OK,” she said. “Now we have to physically have you say, ‘Yes, my child can participate.’ That’s severely impacted the number of students that we’re able to see.”
The 2024 law has already been revised once because of unintended consequences. Earlier this year, state lawmakers amended the language to allow school nurses to provide “non-emergency first aid” for students without parent permission. That change came after some school staff and parents complained the law prevented students from receiving the most basic care.
In the original law, school mental health staff were blocked from providing any counseling or psychological services without consent. The amended version now allows school counselors or psychologists who are licensed by the state board of education to provide “preventative and developmental counseling” without limit.
But in MSCS, the suicide and bullying prevention assemblies are typically run by school social workers. Social workers focus more on therapeutic support for students, Goings said, while psychologists run evaluations and give diagnoses. Leaving social workers out of the list of exempted providers creates a legal barrier, she said.
Sen. Ferrell Haile (R-Gallatin), who sponsored the original bill, said MSCS is misinterpreting the amended legislation.
“The intent of the law is to protect parental rights related to individual counseling and medical decisions—not to restrict general educational or preventative initiatives offered to all students,” Haile said in an email to Chalkbeat.
Haile says he hasn’t heard reports of the family rights law reducing these school-wide prevention services elsewhere. He’s open to making more amendments, he said, but there aren’t any plans for changes in the upcoming legislative session.
The push for parental rights in education has been a key platform point for conservatives nationwide since the COVID-19 pandemic. Some local and state efforts focus specifically on parents’ ability to control their child’s exposure to topics like sexuality and race, while others more broadly establish rights to direct education decisions.
Advocates for more oversight in education, including conservative groups like Moms for Liberty, say parents know best what their child can and should be exposed to. But opponents say these measures politicize school environments and hinder teachers’ ability to educate and support students.
Haile said the 2024 Tennessee law is meant to “protect parents’ God-given rights” to be the “primary decision makers for their children.”
Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.
