Concerned about Democratic efforts to modify a Parents’ Bill of Rights passed less than a year ago in Olympia, the conservative millionaire behind Initiative 2081 announced a new effort Tuesday to protect the law’s original language.
Let’s Go Washington, funded by hedge fund manager Brian Heywood, was the driving force behind the law commonly known as the Parents’ Bill of Rights. The Legislature passed it during the 2024 session with bipartisan support, despite reservations from Democratic lawmakers about its vagueness.
Initiative 2081 laid out 15 rights for parents of public school students, including notification of safety, academic, medical and law enforcement matters, and the right to examine and request specific records and educational materials.
Democratic lawmakers introduced legislation in both the House and Senate that proposed removing parental notification for medical services and treatment, among other “cleanup” efforts they say will align the bill with other state and federal laws. The move sparked outcry from Republicans, who rallied against the proposed changes while expressing deep concerns around gender-affirming care for minors.
Heywood’s initiative introduced Tuesday preemptively proposes repealing Senate Bill 5181, which has not yet been heard in the House.
“Our new initiative preemptively pushes back against their shady dealings and simply repeals SB-5181 should it pass through the legislature. No state employee, no matter how well intentioned can know or love a child better than their own parents,” Heywood wrote in the news release announcing the initiative.
Six initiatives from Let’s Go Washington, all generally backed by state Republicans, came before the Legislature during the 2024 session. The Legislature passed three of them as written, including the Parents’ Bill of Rights. The other three were sent to the November ballot, where voters rejected them.
This year, Heywood is filing his repeal of Senate Bill 5181 as an Initiative to the People. If the initiative receives enough signatures it will appear on the general election ballot in November.
To qualify for the ballot, initiatives must receive signatures representing 8 percent of votes cast in the last governor’s election. To account for invalid signatures that get thrown out during the verification process, the secretary of state recommends a 25 percent cushion. In 2025, that comes out to 386,000 signatures.
Senate Bill 5181 passed off the floor of the Senate in early February on party lines with a 30-19 vote. It has not been heard in the House yet, and with this year’s long legislative session scheduled to run until April 27, its future will likely be unknown for weeks.
Regardless, Heywood is moving forward with the initiative process given a limited time frame to collect nearly 400,000 signatures by July 3. Typically when someone wants to oppose a law passed by the Legislature, they will file a referendum to repeal the law.
The right to both initiatives and referendums is awarded by the state constitution. Initiatives can be used to repeal, modify or create new laws, while referendums are designed to approve or repeal laws that have already been enacted.
Referendums require only 4 percent of the signatures in the last governor’s election, compared to the required 8 percent for initiatives. However, both Senate Bill 5181 and House Bill 1296 have emergency clauses placed on them, rendering them ineligible for a referendum.
Democrats defended their proposed changes to Initiative 2081 by stating that school districts are struggling to implement the initiative in a way that is consistent with other laws. Their legislation, they say, will provide clarity.
That has frustrated Republicans who say the initiative already is the state law. After the Parents’ Bill of Rights passed in 2024, provisions of the law related to student records were placed on hold by a King County Superior Court judge. But at the end of January the same judge dismissed the lawsuit, ruling the initiative does not violate the state constitution.
Senate Bill 5181’s prime sponsor, Sen. Claire Wilson, D-Federal Way, said without the emergency clause the clarifications provided in the bill would not take effect until after the 2024-2025 school year is over.
“We need this bill to go into effect as soon as possible to provide clarity for educators, students, and families,” Wilson said in an email.
To Heywood, the emergency clause is “100 percent” to prevent the opposition from filing a referendum.
