Rocklin Unified Takes Parental Notification Fight to U.S. Supreme Court
Rocklin Unified School District (RUSD) filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday in a case challenging the authority of California’s labor relations board to override the constitutional rights of parents.
In the petition filed on behalf of RUSD by California Justice Center and the Liberty Justice Center, the district asked the High Court to weigh in on a case originally brought against RUSD by the local teachers’ union, Rocklin Teachers Professional Association (RTPA). The union argues it has the authority under its collective bargaining agreement to veto the school board’s policy protecting parental rights.
In September 2023, Rocklin Unified School District proposed its parental notification policy, requiring schools to notify parents when a student seeks to socially transition their gender at school. The policy affirmed parents’ right to be notified if their child requests to be identified by a different gender, use a different name or pronouns, or access school facilities that do not align with their biological sex — rights constitutionally protected by the Fourteenth Amendment and recently affirmed in the Supreme Court’s Mirabelli v. Bonta decision.
The teachers’ union challenged the policy by bringing an administrative proceeding before the pro-union Public Employment Relations Board (“PERB”), alleging the district’s adoption of the policy violated the collective bargaining agreement — despite the fact that the policy addresses non-mandatory subjects of bargaining (e.g., it has no nexus to wages, hours of employment, or other terms and conditions of employment).
On January 28, 2025, PERB issued a decision in favor of the union. RUSD appealed PERB’s decision to the California Court of Appeal and California Supreme Court, arguing that it was not within PERB’s jurisdiction to determine the legality of Rocklin’s policy. Both courts declined to hear the case.
“The teachers’ union is using PERB to advance a political agenda at the expense of parents, the school board, and the Rocklin community,” said Emily Rae, president of the California Justice Center. “PERB has the authority to resolve labor disputes, not issues of constitutional law.”
Now, the California Justice Center and Liberty Justice Center have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene, arguing that the labor relations board lacks the authority to determine matters of federal constitutional importance and that, without review by a court of competent jurisdiction, PERB’s ruling violates the due process guarantees of the Fourteenth Amendment.
On March 2, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling in Mirabelli v. Bonta, affirming the principles that were the direct subject of the district’s parental notification policy. Specifically, the Court ruled that parents, not schools, are “the primary protectors of children’s best interests” and that school policies “that conceal information from parents and facilitate a degree of gender transitioning…violate parents’ rights to direct the upbringing and education of their children.”
“If PERB’s decision is left to stand, a union could sue a school board over any policy it opposes on substance on the basis that the adoption of such policy violates the procedural requirements in the collective bargaining agreement,” the district’s petition states.
“PERB and the teachers’ union have staged an end run around the rights of both parents and the elected officials charged with responsibility of protecting those rights,” Rae said. “Administrative law judges were never intended to adjudicate matters involving constitutionally protected rights.”
The case is Rocklin Unified School District v. Public Employment Relations Board. Read the brief here.
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