Introducing Our Public School Curriculum Opt-Out Form

In June of 2025, the US Supreme Court released a 6–3 deci­sion in the case Mahmoud v. Taylor. The case was filed by par­ents who wished to opt their chil­dren out of instruc­tion involv­ing LGBTQ-themed sto­ry­books in a Maryland pub­lic school sys­tem. The Court held that the school dis­tric­t’s pol­i­cy of not per­mit­ting opt-outs vio­lat­ed the par­ents’ right to free exer­cise of reli­gion under the First Amendment.

“Drawing on ‘endur­ing American tra­di­tion,’ we have long rec­og­nized the rights of par­ents to direct ‘the reli­gious upbring­ing’ of their chil­dren… The right of par­ents ‘to direct the reli­gious upbring­ing of their’ chil­dren would be an emp­ty promise if it did not fol­low those chil­dren into the pub­lic school class­room.”

With that in mind, the Secular Humanists of Western Lake Erie has cre­at­ed a form par­ents can use to opt-out their chil­dren from cur­ricu­lum that

Violate or sub­stan­tial­ly con­flict with your sin­cere­ly held reli­gious beliefs;

Interfere with your right to direct your child’s reli­gious upbring­ing;

Expose your child to reli­gious or moral view­points that under­mine our family’s reli­gious teach­ings or prac­tices.

For exam­ple, here in Ohio there is a law pro­posed that would force public-schools to show a biased video pro­duced by an anti-abortion group. The video is called Baby Olivia and is meant to bul­ly kids into not hav­ing abor­tions. This opt-out form would exempt your child from watch­ing it.

There is anoth­er pro­posed law to install a cur­ricu­lum called The Success sequence that would expose chil­dren to a reli­gious­ly biased view of how they should live their lives. This form would pro­tect your child from that non­sense.

If your school has a time for the pledge of alle­giance you can opt them out of it same goes for study­ing a 10 Commandments poster the state may require be put up.

You can also use this form to opt your child out of attend­ing those manda­to­ry fake assem­blies about char­ac­ter build­ing which is real­ly just a way for reli­gious groups to talk to your chil­dren with­out you being in the room.

Our opt out form can be used in oth­er cas­es as well that aren’t men­tioned here. We also sug­gest you check with your school dis­trict to see if they have a spe­cif­ic process to opt-out chil­dren but you can still use our form to add to that process.

Also note that the school is not allowed to ask about your reli­gious beliefs or ques­tion them, That would be a 1st amend­ment vio­la­tion.

It is thanks to a few big­ot­ed par­ents that we can all pro­tect our chil­dren from reli­gious extrem­ism.

This form is pro­vid­ed for infor­ma­tion­al pur­pos­es only and is NOT legal advice. If you have any legal ques­tions about the form or its use con­sult an attor­ney