"I don't like the schools keeping secrets," Brian Heywood said of IL26-001. "I think parents need to know what's going on with kids, regardless of trans or LGBTQ issues." A supporter of the initiative put in words what some parents fear: "At school, you'll be one person, and your parents will have no idea."
Abusers Get Records
Current law blocks two kinds of parents from a child's sensitive records: a parent under an active child abuse or neglect investigation, and a parent who is the defendant in a criminal proceeding in which the student is the named victim.
IL26-001 would eliminate the second safeguard, while giving parents access to a sensitive group of student records, including medical and health records, mental health counseling records, vocational counseling records, discipline, attendance, and "any other student-specific files, documents, or other materials that are maintained by the public school."
Once a criminal investigation moves to trial, IL26-001 would allow the parent to request the records and the school must produce them within 10 business days, all without the parent appearing in person. IL26-001 includes a clause that shields it from legislative amendment for two years after voter approval.
Counselors Lose Confidentiality
Any adult in Washington who consults a licensed mental health professional is protected by RCW 70.02, the state's health care information statute. No parent can demand the notes, and a mental health provider may not release them. It's the baseline expectation of privacy for anyone in the state.
But a student who confides in a school counselor has no such protection under IL26-001. The counselor's notes are "records of any mental health counseling," explicitly named as records any parent may obtain. Under current law, nothing in the parental rights statute changes RCW 70.02 access rules. IL26-001 would eliminate that provision.
The result is that a 17-year-old who tells a school counselor about abuse at home, or sexual orientation or gender identity, would have no expectation of confidentiality. The same student, one day after turning 18, sitting across from any licensed therapist in the state, has full confidentiality.
The ethical standards set by the American School Counselor Association treat confidentiality as the foundation of the counseling relationship, and documentation as a professional obligation - the record that establishes continuity of care and, sometimes, the only record that a child was in danger.
IL26-001 puts those two obligations in conflict. Document a session, and the notes become a record a parent can demand. Don't, and the student's care has no history and the danger has no paper trail. School counselors in Montana, facing similar legislation, described that choice in sworn court filings: comply with their ethics, or comply with the law. Predictably, students stop talking, and counselors stop documenting.
Queer Kids Pay The Price
"[IL26-001] forces our schools to out LGBTQIA+ kids to the very families that might throw them out." - Rep. Pramila Jayapal
The Williams Institute at UCLA found that 40 percent of LGBTQ homeless youth were kicked out of their homes because of their identity. The Washington State LGBTQ Commission's 2025 survey found roughly one in five LGBTQ+ Washingtonians experiencing housing instability. Washington's own Department of Children, Youth, and Families acknowledges in published guidance that LGBTQ youth in its care often "spent time homeless because they felt safer on the streets than in their group or foster home."
The Trevor Project's 2025 survey of more than 16,000 LGBTQ young people found that thirty-six percent seriously considered suicide in the past year, including forty percent of transgender and nonbinary youth.
Who Opposes IL26-001
The Washington State PTA formally opposes IL26-001, concluding that the initiative's provisions "remove existing student safety protections, create conflicts with state and federal laws, and undermine the trust between students, families, and schools." The PTA is urging its 80,000-plus members to vote no in November.
The Washington Education Association also opposes IL26-001, alongside the No Hate in WA State coalition — including the Washington State Nurses Association and Planned Parenthood. The Tacoma City Council voted unanimously in August to oppose both measures.
Who's Paying For IL26-001
Let's Go Washington has raised $1.9 million to pass IL26-001 and IL26-638. Heywood, a Mercer Island hedge fund manager, is the organization's founder and its largest donor by a wide margin. Let's Go Washington is running a third measure this November: I-645, which would repeal Washington's new 9.9 percent tax on household income above $1 million - a tax Heywood pays. The state's fiscal impact statement estimates repeal would cost $11.4 billion through 2031, most of it money dedicated to public schools. Let's Go Washington has faced repeated campaign finance complaints, including a prior fine and a Public Disclosure Commission investigation opened in August.