by Martin Mawyer, New American Prophet, ©2026
(Sep. 6, 2026) — School buses are back on the road.
Children are carrying new backpacks into unfamiliar classrooms. Parents are packing lunches, checking schedules, and trusting school officials with their sons and daughters for another year.
But something is waiting for them at the schoolhouse door: lawyers, federal investigators, congressional legislation, and a growing national battle over who has the final authority to decide what happens to America’s children.
The 2026-27 school year is beginning under a legal fight over who has authority over America’s children.
Here’s a small sampling of what is happening:
In Kansas, the U.S. Department of Education ordered Topeka Public Schools to stop creating separate gender-support plans that parents could not inspect. The district must give parents access to existing records, rescind guidance restricting information from parents, and retrain school employees.
When neighboring school districts Olathe and Shawnee Mission refused similar agreements, the dispute escalated.
Now the Justice Department could become involved, and millions of dollars in federal education funding could be placed at risk.
Then, just one day later, the Education Department issued a nationwide warning that schools generally cannot create secret records about children and hide them from their parents.
My question is this: Why was such a warning even necessary?
Why do schools need a reminder that parents have a right to know what their children are being told, how they are being treated, and what information is being collected about them?
Kansas is hardly alone.
Federal lawsuits in Maryland and New Jersey are challenging school policies accused of withholding gender-related information from parents.
In California, Jewish, Hindu, and Zoroastrian parents are suing over a school-sponsored field trip to a mosque that had children memorize Quranic scripture, given Qurans, and then dressed in a group photo wearing Muslim garb without parental consent.
The particular facts differ from case to case, but the same question keeps returning: when does a school’s authority end and a parent’s authority begin?
This legal battle also involves how the district treats Christian students and organizations.
The Fellowship of Christian Athletes alleges that a New Jersey school district allows outside adults to help secular student organizations while excluding Christian mentors from religious clubs.
Apparently, adult assistance is acceptable until the adult carries a Bible.
And on November 3, the United States Supreme Court will hear a major case involving Colorado’s universal preschool program.
Catholic schools argue that they should not be forced to surrender their religious enrollment standards simply to participate in a publicly funded program available to other schools.
Congress has also entered the fight.
The newly introduced SHIELD Act would require parental notification before public schools distribute abortion-related information. It would also restrict abortion providers and their subsidiaries from supplying such material through schools and school-operated websites.
Let’s be clear: these cases are not legally identical.
One involves access to student records. Another concerns gender policies. Others involve religious activities, Christian student organizations, abortion-related materials, or government funding for religious schools.
But pretending they are entirely unrelated would be foolish.
They are separate fronts in the same conflict over who will shape the beliefs, values, identities, and moral development of America’s children.
Will it be their parents?
Or will it be school administrators, government agencies, activist organizations, and judges?
Parents do not surrender their God-given responsibility when their children walk through a schoolhouse door. Schools may help parents educate their children, but they must never presume to replace them.
Yet across the country, that boundary is being tested again and again.
The classrooms are open.
The children are back.
But the legal fight over their faith, their privacy, and their parents’ authority is already in session.
Martin Mawyer is the founder and president of Christian Action Network, a nonprofit he launched in 1990 to defend America’s Judeo-Christian values and expose threats to faith and family.
A former editor of Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority Report, Mawyer has spent more than four decades in the pro-family movement as an author, filmmaker, and commentator. His notable works include the documentary Stolen Rainbow: The Great Unmasking, the book and upcoming film When Evil Stops Hiding, and the Shout Out Patriots podcast.
Through his publications, media appearances, and advocacy campaigns, Mawyer continues to be a leading national voice for Christian action and cultural renewal.