A group of Republican lawmakers led by Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA) and Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) reintroduced legislation Wednesday to create a parental bill of rights.

Filed as HR 5, the Parents Bill of Rights Act would codify several new transparency requirements for public school districts while expanding parent-child privacy protections, including prohibiting schools from subjecting students to any physical or mental health exam without parental approval.

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McCarthy and Letlow announced the new bill at an event with parents Wednesday. They were joined by House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY), and other Republican lawmakers.

"So many times across this nation, we found that parents were attacked, called terrorists, and they simply wanted to go to school boards and be heard," McCarthy said at the event. The speaker said the bill's number harkens to the age students begin kindergarten.

The reintroduced bill includes provisions that would require all public school districts to disclose clearly their curriculum materials to parents, mandate parental consent for participation in student surveys, and prohibit schools from selling student information "for commercial or financial gain."

"Unfortunately, the education bureaucracy has branded parents with a scarlet letter — as if to suggest that these dedicated moms and dads are nothing more than radicals who should be pushed away from their child’s educational growth and personal development," Foxx said. "I find this to be not only abhorrent but also entirely antithetical to the values that we espouse as Americans. The Parents Bill of Rights will support parents' rights movements across America. ... Let me make one thing abundantly clear: Parents are the primary stakeholders in their children’s education. Nobody can tell us otherwise."

While the GOP controls the House, Democratic control of the Senate and White House means the bill is unlikely to become law. No Democratic lawmakers have signed on as co-sponsors.

Parental rights have emerged as a significant culture war issue as Republicans focus on education policy. Multiple states, including Florida and Texas, have passed parental bill of rights laws in recent years.

While the Wednesday event had a number of parents in the audience, the National Parents Union issued a statement blasting the bill, saying it does not "guarantee parents that their student will have access to a high quality education that prepares them for a life of opportunity."

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"This bill has nothing to do with parent rights and everything to do with the radical culture wars that serve as a distraction from what our students’ really need to recover from the pandemic," the group said. "This bill would lead to more education bans, which takes books off classroom shelves and will therefore limit access to education for millions of kids across the country. From national polling we know that the top priorities identified by the vast majority of families are the safety of their children while at school and the urgent need for mental health supports. This bill fails to address either issue and therefore is clearly not intended for the millions of families who have been demanding leadership from federal, state and local lawmakers."