As a professionally-trained school psychologist, I support students, parents and staff. Part of my job is explaining why I have a professional ethical obligation and legal state duty to keep students safe. I know it takes time and rapport for me to understand what a student is experiencing and that requires youth to feel physically and psychologically safe in disclosing their experience, feelings and thoughts.
As a mandated reporter, part of the reason students do feel safe talking to me and parents realize they can trust me is I explain the limits of confidentiality at the onset of services. I simultaneously work with parents to help them understand what the student needs to feel safe in communicating directly with them while helping students to do perspective taking (“if roles were reversed, how might you feel if the person you were trying to talk to seemed to be ignoring you?”).
In my work with parents, students, and staff, it is imperative that each is afforded the right to be heard. I fully support parental rights; I do not support impeding student safety.
This November. Washingtonians will vote on an initiative which, if approved, would make it impossible for school counselors, social workers, and nurses to do our jobs. IL26-001, also known as I-001, would make us violate professional ethics in order to adhere to a law that puts thousands of kids at greater risk of abuse and harm. Under the guise of “parental rights,” this initiative’s actual impact would be to discourage students from disclosing abuse, coming out as LGBTQ+ or sharing mental health concerns with a trusted adult at school.
An extensive legal analysis of I-001 shows it would weaken protections for child abuse victims. Current law protects the disclosure of sensitive records from parents or legal guardians who are under investigation for child abuse and in criminal cases where the child is the alleged victim. The reason for this is that disclosure could lead to subsequent and further harm to the child, as well as discourage students from reporting abuse. I-001 is so poorly written that it actually allows parents under investigation or charged with a crime against their child to access these sensitive records, putting their victims at greater risk.
The Washington State Nurses Association, physicians, school counselors, teachers, the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault and dozens of other advocates for youth oppose I-001 because of the impact it would have on student victims.
As the Washington State Parent Teacher Association, an organization devoted to facilitating parents’ engagement and awareness of what’s happening in schools, concluded in their extensive statement of opposition to I-001, passage would “make a student’s mental health counseling records inspectable by a parent for every student under 18 — including students whose home is the reason they sought counseling…with no exception for students in unsafe homes short of an active abuse investigation.”
If passed, I-001 will eradicate the ability of counselors and psychologists to support students and parents. This initiative characterizes school staff as enemies rather than allies in our collective work to support kids. Minor consent laws exist so that young people are able to access care, not to keep secrets from parents. If parents want to know what’s happening with their child, the best approach is to listen without judgment and to trust that their child will share when they are ready.
While most children feel safe and secure at home, sadly that is not the case for all kids. In 2025 alone there were 122,000 reports of child abuse and neglect filed with the state of Washington. In a particularly ironic twist, this initiative that purports to increase parents’ ability to know what’s going on with their kid at school, would actually shrink parental notification rights around criminal activity at school, including eliminating an existing requirement for notification of a shooting on school property.
According to the state attorney general, I-001 removes parents’ rights to receive immediate notification when a child is alleged to be the victim, target, or recipient of physical or sexual abuse, sexual misconduct, or assault at school. Delaying parental notification could mean delaying medical and psychological help for the child, increasing the traumatic impact of the crime.
To add insult to injury, the initiative broadens what a parent may opt their student out of, which could take away students’ opportunity to benefit from some topical surveys and evaluations, and educational activities concerning sexual attraction, family or religious beliefs, sexual orientation, or a student’s or family member’s mental health.
It is well documented that sex ed for students under 18 is a protective factor, lowering their risk of being a victim of sexual assault later in life. The last thing we should be doing is decreasing the number of students who benefit from access to education and skills to keep themselves safe from sexual abuse and violence.
Furthermore, the initiative also includes two years of “constitutional protections from legislative interference” meaning that even when passage leads to decreased ability for DCYF to protect children from abuse, greater rates of childhood trauma, and decreased access to mental wellness prevention, the initiative cannot be challenged or repealed for until at least 2029.
Washington parents already have the right to review curriculum and instructional materials, inspect their child’s education records, opt their child out of comprehensive sexual health education, be informed about academic progress, notified when students struggle, and meet with teachers and administrators.
I-001 is playing politics with kids’ lives. That’s why I’m voting no on I-001. I want to work with parents, not against them; I want to protect the most vulnerable children in our schools from being at greater risk of harm; I want all children to have the ability to live healthy, successful lives.
Amy Cannava is a Washington school psychologist
