California’s AB 495 Erodes Parental Rights and Child Safeguards

A recent move by the California Senate Appropriations Committee has left families across the state concerned about their rights as the primary decision-makers in their children’s education.

Just this week, as the legislature neared the end of its session, the state senate approved AB 495, a proposal that expands the list of those who can claim “caregiver” rights over a child—threatening to expand the state’s authority at the expense of parents. Despite last-minute revisions before the legislature, this bill is still harmful to parental rights. The proposal has even been described by some as “putting every child at risk.”

This isn’t the first time California lawmakers have sought to sideline parents.

In 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 107, a law that allows California courts to strip custody from parents, who don’t consent to their child undergoing experimental and irreversible gender transition procedures. That law applies regardless of the parents’ home state—all that’s needed is for the child to be within California borders. The law also requires doctors to withhold medical records of gender-related treatment from parents, even in response to a subpoena.

Now, with AB 495, lawmakers are again expanding the state’s authority at the expense of families.

Branded the Family Preparedness Plan Act of 2025, the bill claims to provide legal tools for families facing temporary parental absence. But a closer look reveals that its language is far broader: It allows an adult who has “affinity” with a child to the “fifth degree of kinship,” including stepsiblings, to assume custody-like control through a one-page “Caregiver’s Authorization Affidavit.” That gives those individuals the right to make medical and mental health decisions on behalf of children.

And under a recent amendment by the bill’s author, Assemblywoman Celeste Rodriguez, those affidavits don’t even have to be notarized—eliminating a basic protection.

Parents and advocacy groups are sounding the alarm.

The California Family Council, the Home School Legal Defense Association, and local pastors have organized rallies, with nearly 6,000 people gathering at the state capitol last month.

Yet while California seeks to take away parents’ rights, other states are moving in the opposite direction.

 25 states have already passed a “Parents’ Bill of Rights” affirming the principle that parents are the ultimate authority in their children’s education and care. Many of these proposals affirm that parents are a child’s primary caregiver and the state cannot interfere with such a relationship unless the state has a “compelling” interest that is not being served (otherwise known as a “strict scrutiny” clause).

The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld parents’ rights on several occasions, including in opinions stating that Americans have “the right to marry, establish a home and bring up children” and that the “primary role of the parents in the upbringing of their children is now established beyond debate as an enduring American tradition.”

As explained by Heritage Foundation research the high court has even ruled that children have an “underdeveloped sense of responsibility” and that a child’s character is not as “well formed as an adult’s”—giving parents crucial rights to care for their minor-aged children.

Such opinions and policies enshrine what AB 495 threatens to erode: the recognition that families, not the state, are best equipped to make decisions on behalf of their children.

That’s not all.

Surveys find that radical “gender” policies are unpopular. Survey results released in April by the NBC News Decision Desk found that 71% of respondents aged 18 and over agreed that there are only two genders: male and female. 75% of respondents opposed allowing males to compete in female athletics.

When minor-aged children tell a teacher they are confused about their sex, these young people need empathy and careful guidance from adults—starting with their parents. Research finds that most children grow out of these feelings later in life.

California families should not have to leave their state to preserve their rights. Lawmakers must reject AB 495 and instead strengthen the protections that affirm parents as the first and most important guardians of their children’s well-being.

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