Overview
- The U.S. House approved H.R. 2616, the Stopping Indoctrination and Protecting Kids Act, by a 217–198 vote on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, and the bill has been transmitted to the Senate.
- The bill conditions Elementary and Secondary Education Act funding on school policies that require parental notification or consent before changing a student’s name, pronouns, or gender marker and before altering sex-based accommodations, and it bars use of federal funds to teach concepts the text calls “gender ideology.”
- Supporters say the measure restores parental rights and blocks taxpayer-funded ideological instruction while critics including the Congressional Equality Caucus, the ACLU, the Human Rights Campaign and The Trevor Project say it could force educators to disclose students’ transgender status and limit classroom discussion of transgender people.
- Eight House Democrats crossed party lines to back the bill: Reps. Henry Cuellar, Don Davis, Cleo Fields, Laura Gillen, Vicente Gonzalez, Marcy Kaptur, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, and Eugene Vindman, prompting intra-party backlash and public criticism from LGBTQ+ groups.
- Because the bill uses federal ESEA grants as the enforcement tool, passage would give the federal government leverage to shape school policies that are normally decided locally and could trigger legal challenges, changes to district rules on records and facilities, and renewed fights over books and classroom instruction.