The Washington Professional Educator Standards Board is rewriting the rules — and your child’s superintendent could lose their career for keeping you informed. On May 15, 2026, the PESB is set to vote on changes to the Washington Administrative Code that will give state bureaucrats new power to discipline — and potentially fire — local school superintendents. The stated justification is “accountability.” But Washington parents and taxpayers deserve to understand what, exactly, superintendents will be held accountable for.
The short answer: among other things, for telling you things the state doesn’t want you to know about your own child.
Where This Comes From
Last year the Legislature passed House Bill 1296. Under the guise of promoting a “safe and supportive education system,” HB 1296 dismantles Washington’s landmark parental bill of rights law (formerly RCW 28A.605.005 Parental rights) while unleashing an unprecedented expansion of state control over education.
Buried in Section 309 of the bill (p. 16) was a directive to PESB: adopt rules making a superintendent’s “willful noncompliance with state law” an act of unprofessional conduct — subject to suspension or revocation of their professional certification. PESB is now following through. Under proposed new rules — amended WAC 181-87 and a brand-new Chapter 181-90 WAC (see Tab 12b RDS 7034.1) — any superintendent or chief administrator in Washington, whether certificated or not, can be investigated and sanctioned for “willful noncompliance.” Here is how the two-track enforcement system works, and why it matters.
The Two-Track Enforcement System
For certificated superintendents, a finding of willful noncompliance triggers proceedings under WAC Chapter 181-86 — PESB’s existing framework for suspension and revocation of educator certificates. Lose your certificate and you cannot work as an educator anywhere in Washington. That is a career-ending consequence. Critically, WAC 181-87-005 explicitly states that an unprofessional conduct finding “shall not limit discharge, nonrenewal of contracts, or other employment action by employers” — meaning it is designed to stack on top of, not replace, the school board’s own power to terminate.
For non-certificated superintendents, the story is more novel. Washington law — RCW 28A.410.120 — has long barred PESB from requiring any certification or qualifications of superintendents. Because PESB’s traditional enforcement lever is certificate revocation, superintendents who held no certificate were effectively beyond its reach. The new Chapter 181-90 WAC closes that gap for the first time, creating a parallel accountability track. Rather than certificate revocation, consequences for non-certificated superintendents flow through RCW 28A.300.0714, which authorizes the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to:
- require policy changes;
- mandate a compliance action plan developed with public input;
- withhold and redirect up to 20 percent of the district’s state basic education funding; and
- issue a formal finding of unprofessional conduct on the superintendent’s professional record.
PESB and OSPI cannot directly fire a non-certificated superintendent — that power remains with the local school board. But a formal state finding of unprofessional conduct creates powerful pressure on the board to act, and again, WAC 181-87-005 makes explicit that such a finding is intended to support, not preclude, employment termination.
What Is “Noncompliance with State Law”?
This is where it gets important for parents to pay attention.
HB 1296 defines “noncompliance with state law” — the trigger for these new professional sanctions — to include violations of Washington’s nondiscrimination laws, specifically RCW 28A.640 and RCW 28A.642. These are the statutes governing sexual equality and civil rights in public schools, and they explicitly include “gender identity” and “gender expression” as protected characteristics.
Under years of OSPI guidance built on those same statutes, Washington schools have been directed to keep a student’s gender identity — including a social transition at school — confidential from parents, if the student so requests. The guidance frames parental notification as a potential civil rights violation against the student.
Under HB 1296 and the new PESB rules, superintendents who disagree with that approach — who believe parents have a right to know what is happening with their child at school and act accordingly — can now be found to have committed “willful noncompliance with state law.” That finding triggers professional discipline, and their careers are on the line because they refuse to keep secrets from parents.
The Accountability Trap
The legislation does include one affirmative defense: a superintendent can escape sanction if they can show they “were actively attempting to bring the school district... into compliance with the applicable state law.”
Read that carefully: The defense isn’t “I believed parents had a right to know.” The defense isn’t “I disagreed in good faith with OSPI’s interpretation.” The defense is: I was trying to comply. In other words, the only safe harbor is active submission to the state’s position — regardless of what parents in a community want, and regardless of what local elected school boards direct.
This is the accountability these new rules actually create: not accountability to parents, not accountability to locally elected boards, but accountability to Olympia.
What This Means for Your School District
If these rules pass on May 15, any Washington superintendent who…
- Notifies parents when their child socially transitions at school
- Follows a local school board policy that prioritizes parental notification over OSPI gender identity guidance
- Declines to implement curriculum that OSPI has approved but local parents have objected to
...could find themselves the subject of a PESB investigation for “willful noncompliance” — even if their own school board directed them to take that position.
The PESB board documents acknowledge the agency consulted with the Washington Association of School Administrators (WASA) and the Attorney General’s office in developing these rules. What is notably absent from that consultation list: any organization representing parents.
HB 1296 Is Already Under Attack — From Courts, Parents, and Voters
Washington parents are not waiting passively. HB 1296 faces challenges on three separate fronts simultaneously — in the U.S. Supreme Court, in state court, and at the ballot box.
The U.S. Supreme Court Has Already Signaled the Answer
In March 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled six-to-three in Mirabelli v. Bonta to reinstate a permanent injunction blocking California’s school gender identity nondisclosure policy — striking down a law that, like Washington’s OSPI guidance, required school staff to conceal a student’s gender identity from parents without the student’s consent. The Court found such policies likely violate both the First and Fourteenth Amendments, concluding they fail “strict scrutiny” — the Constitution’s most demanding legal test — because they cut parents out of decisions about their own children’s welfare. Washington’s approach is arguably more constitutionally vulnerable than California’s: California merely removed a notification mandate, while Washington’s OSPI actively prohibits disclosure and has ordered at least one district to stop notifying parents.
The Mirabelli case now returns to the Ninth Circuit — which covers Washington — for a full appeal with the injunction in place. That ruling runs directly through Washington’s legal landscape. Crucially, State Superintendent Chris Reykdal has already committed publicly to follow federal court rulings on these issues saying in January 2026 that if current state law is changed by “a federal court,” then “we’ll uphold the law.”
A State Lawsuit Was Filed in October 2025
In October 2025, a coalition of Washington parents, school board members, and educators — represented by the Citizen Action Defense Fund and attorney Joel Ard — filed suit in Thurston County Superior Court to overturn HB 1296 entirely. The complaint alleges HB 1296 violates constitutional guarantees protecting parental authority and free exercise of religion, and also violates Washington’s “single subject” rule for legislation. Kennewick School Board member and lead plaintiff Gabe Galbraith put it plainly: “We’re being told not to share information that parents have a right to know. That’s not education — that’s state interference in the family.” The Governor, the Legislature, OSPI, and Superintendent Reykdal are all named as defendants. The Attorney General’s office has said it will defend the law in court.
Voters Will Have the Final Say in November 2026
Washington citizens are not relying solely on the courts. The grassroots group Let’s Go Washington has gathered over 400,000 signatures to place an initiative on the November 2026 ballot that would restore the Parents’ Bill of Rights that HB 1296 gutted. House and Senate Democratic leaders refused to hold official hearings on the measure. Minority members, however, held their own unofficial legislative listening sessions, garnering statewide and national media attention. In fact, The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by Corey DeAngelis arguing that a Washington victory for parental rights could set a precedent for blue states nationwide.
Against that backdrop, the PESB’s May 15 vote to formalize professional sanctions against superintendents who keep parents informed is more than an administrative housekeeping measure. It is the state doubling down — adding teeth to a legal framework the courts may soon declare unconstitutional, and that Washington voters may soon repeal outright.
What You Can Do
The PESB’s “Final consideration HB 1296: superintendent willful noncompliance“ presentation will be given at 1:45 p.m. on Friday, May 15, 2026. On-site public comment sign-up is that morning at 8:15 a.m., and the comment period will be held from 8:45 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. There is also a brief public comment period on Thursday, May 14, 2026. See the agenda. To comment live at the PESB meeting, members of the public must submit their remarks in writing ahead of time, either by bringing a copy of your remarks with you to the meeting or submitting them via email to pesb@k12.wa.us the day before the meeting or during the sign-up period the day of the meeting you’re attending. Those who don’t wish to speak can also submit their comments via email to PESB@k12.wa.us with the subject line “Public Comment.” See “Submit public comment” for additional details.
For more information about the PESB meeting, including directions and registering for the virtual webinar, see Board Meetings: Professional Educator Standards Board or contact the Professional Educator Standards Board at (360) 725-6275.