National Parents Union members rally at the U.S. Capitol under a Nothing About Us Without Us banner

Grassroots. Parent-Led. Bold Change.

Real action on
real issues.It's time to give our kids the America they deserve.

Families are getting squeezed while politicians pick fights that feed nobody's kids. We organize parents to demand what actually matters: safe kids and a family budget that works. Not manufactured outrage. Not empty promises.

Families vote. And they're watching.
Photo: National Parents Union Scroll

Where We Stand

Parents are done being used as a wedge. We want results.

American families are carrying a lot right now. The bills that don't stop coming. The jobs being rewritten by technology in real time. Kids who need to be safe at school, safe online, and safe walking home. Parents are not asking government for miracles. They are asking for their lives to work the way they're supposed to.

Meanwhile, too many politicians hand families a fight instead of a plan. Book bans instead of book budgets. Culture wars instead of childcare. Outrage that trends for a day and changes nothing by dinner. A culture war never once lowered a grocery bill or stopped a shooting.

We are the independent, united political voice of parents across the United States, and we keep the receipts. On the issues families actually rank first, the numbers are not close. This is the mandate. Every leader gets held to it.

Keep your kids safe. Give families room to breathe. And answer to the parents who are watching. That's the whole ask.

This Is What Parent Power Looks Like

We don't wait to be invited to the table. We build our own.

Millions of parents, organized across every state, refusing to let their families be an afterthought. When we move together, leaders move with us.

Photo: National Parents Union

The Data Is Not Close

This is what parents actually want.

Straight from our own national polling of parents of public school kids. Not vibes. Not spin. Receipts.

0%
say improving the cost of living for families with kids should be a national priority.
NPU National Poll, Dec. 2025 (N=1,516)
0%
call rising food and gas prices a problem for their family, and 63% call it a very big one.
NPU National Poll, June 2026 (N=1,527)
0%
say platforms should be legally required to keep harmful content away from kids online.
NPU Online Safety Survey, Dec. 2024 (N=1,529)
0%
say the cost of and access to childcare should be a priority for leaders.
NPU National Poll, Dec. 2025 (N=1,516)
0%
say housing and rent costs are a big problem for families like theirs.
NPU National Poll, June 2026 (N=1,527)
0%
support increasing the Child Tax Credit to put money back in families' pockets.
NPU National Poll, June 2026 (N=1,527)

Full polling and methodology are linked in each figure above and in the footer. This is our own national research, in the field, on the record.

Keri Rodrigues, President of the National Parents Union
“
Parents are not living in an economic recovery. They're living in an economic crisis.

The Family Agenda

This isn't a wish list.
It's a mandate.

When we asked parents in September 2026 which big ideas matter most, the answer was not close: safe schools and safe kids (57%) and great teachers and great classrooms (56%) topped the list, with graduates ready for the real world (46%) right behind. These are the five promises parents are demanding. Each one is backed by a plan and by supermajorities of parents. Safety first. Family budgets second. No excuses on any of it.

01
Safety

Safe Kids. Period.

Nothing else on this list matters if kids are not safe, and don't feel safe, at school, online, and everywhere in between. Parents want gun violence treated like the emergency it is, real guardrails on the technology aimed at their children, and a trusted adult within reach when a kid is struggling. This is the floor, not a favor.

93%want every school to have enough counselors and mental health professionals, and safe schools ranked parents' No. 1 priority. NPU National Survey, Sept. 2026
What leaders can deliver
✓Take gun violence seriously. Evidence-based safety policies, including safe storage and sensible gun laws, so a school day never ends in a vigil.
✓A trusted adult for every kid. Enough counselors, social workers, and psychologists to meet real staffing standards, so a struggling kid gets help before it becomes a crisis.
✓Real guardrails on technology. Ban companion AI chatbots for minors. Ban the harvesting of kids' data. Make Big Tech pay into a fund for the harms it profits from.
✓Safe to and from school. Sensitive-location protections, so no child loses a teacher, a classmate, or a parent to an enforcement action at the schoolhouse door.
✓One person accountable. A Kids Cabinet with an ombudsman as a single point of accountability for everything that touches children.
The promise: your child will grow up known, safe, and supported. Full stop.
02
The Family Budget

A Budget That Works.

A safe kid still needs the lights on. Wages stopped keeping pace a generation ago, childcare costs more than a mortgage, and rent eats a paycheck whole. Meanwhile an economy being rebuilt by machines is minting record windfalls for everyone except the families raising the next workforce. Parents aren't asking for a handout. They're asking for the math to work.

93%say improving the cost of living for families should be a national priority. NPU, Dec. 2025
What leaders can deliver
✓Money back in your pocket. Restore and expand the Child Tax Credit, and take on the price-gouging on groceries, gas, and utilities that pads corporate margins while families ration.
✓Childcare that doesn't break you. Affordable childcare and universal pre-K, plus paid family and medical leave, so a parent never chooses between the job that pays the bills and the kid who needs them.
✓A roof that stays over your head. Real action on rent, mortgages, and property taxes, so families stay in the neighborhoods where their kids are putting down roots.
✓Food on the table. Protect and strengthen SNAP, WIC, and school nutrition, because no kid learns or grows on an empty stomach.
✓Wages that share the windfall. Fair pay, worker protections, and a demand that the AI productivity boom reaches the working families building it, not just the balance sheets.
The promise: a paycheck that covers the month, childcare you can afford, and a family budget with room to breathe.
03
Learning

Read. Reason. Compete.

The world is speeding up. Families should not need a second income or a private tutor to keep their kid from falling behind. Literacy is the tollgate to every other opportunity, and too many children are hitting it without the skills to get through.

94%back a statewide goal to get kids reading on grade level by the end of fourth grade. NPU National Survey, Sept. 2026
What leaders can deliver
✓A Right to Read, enforceable in law. Not reading on grade level by the end of fourth grade? The state owes that family an evaluation and intensive tutoring. A guarantee, not a pamphlet.
✓A great teacher in front of every kid. Competitive starting pay, a paid residency year, housing support, and loan forgiveness for the hardest jobs.
✓Real knowledge, real materials. High-quality instruction in reading, math, science, civics, and AI literacy in every district, plus a second language starting early.
✓No more secrets about failing schools. An honest, readable report card for every school, real investment to fix the ones that are failing, and the option to transfer while it's fixed.
The promise: your child will graduate knowing how to read, reason, and compete with anyone.
04
The Future

Skills That Pay The Bills.

Thirteen years of school should end in a paycheck, a credential, or a real plan. Not a shrug. College costs a fortune, AI is reshaping entry-level work, and too many kids cross the stage holding a diploma that certifies attendance, not readiness.

89%want a personalized college and career plan for every kid, starting in middle school. NPU National Survey, Sept. 2026
What leaders can deliver
✓A plan and a path for every kid, starting in middle school. A personalized roadmap to real pathways: career and technical education, early college, apprenticeships, service.
✓Graduate with more than a diploma. Every student finishes high school with college credit, a real internship or apprenticeship, or a semester of service. Real experience, before the tassel moves.
✓Proof that travels. A portable learning record from kindergarten through career that employers and colleges both recognize.
✓A human who knows your kid's name. Qualified navigators and counselors in every high school, so no student plans their future alone.
✓Options built for your family. Open enrollment, magnets, early colleges, and a Parent Power Act that writes families' real rights into law. More good options, free of charge, accountable for results.
✓A paid year of service. Every graduate who wants one gets a paid community service year. Skills, purpose, and a first paycheck.
The promise: your child's diploma will actually mean something, and there will be a path with their name on it.
05
Fairness

Fairness For The Future.

The companies building the future are posting record profits. The schools and services preparing kids for that future are cutting staff. Communities vote their own property taxes up just to keep the lights on, while the technology transforming their kids' futures generates some of the largest windfalls in history. The question is who pays, and right now the answer is falling on the families least able to absorb it.

76%support taxing incomes over $1 million to fund the schools serving kids with the greatest need. NPU National Survey, Sept. 2026
What leaders can deliver
✓The AI dividend. An AI Trust Fund financed by a tax on large AI companies and the productivity windfall they deliver, invested in kids by need. They get the disruption. Our kids get the dividend.
✓Your zip code is not your kid's destiny. Cut the per-pupil spending gap between the wealthiest and poorest districts in half within a decade, with a real funding floor under every student.
✓Family receipts. An annual statement showing exactly what's being spent on your child and how it compares to the district next door. You get a receipt for a cup of coffee. You should get one for your kid.
✓Buildings worthy of the kids inside them. An infrastructure program to fix crumbling schools, so families stop absorbing every cost spike through their property tax bill.
The promise: your child's opportunities will not depend on your address, and the companies profiting most from the future will help pay for it.

Protect & Prepare

The family AI strategy.

AI is being built in real time, and our kids are the test subjects. We don't get to opt out, so we're going to shape it. That takes one comprehensive AI literacy strategy with two jobs: protect kids from the harms, and prepare them to out-think the tools.

Protect our kidsPrepare our kids
01Prepare

AI literacy in every classroom, K-12

The backbone of the whole plan. A comprehensive, funded AI literacy strategy so every kid learns to use AI, question it, and out-think it. Trained teachers, real curriculum, and standards from kindergarten on. No child graduates unable to navigate the technology rewriting their world. In our September 2026 survey, 85% of parents said training kids to use technology and AI effectively and safely would help them succeed after graduation.

02Protect

Hard guardrails on the products aimed at kids

Ban companion AI chatbots for minors. Ban the harvesting of children's data. Require age-appropriate design and a clear label whenever a kid is talking to a machine. And make Big Tech pay into a Kids Online Safety Trust Fund for the harms it profits from. 87% of parents want it in law.

03Protect

A human in the loop, always

When a school uses AI to grade, discipline, flag, or sort a child, a qualified adult makes the final call, parents have the right to know it was used, and families can appeal. No algorithm decides a kid's future in the dark, and no student gets mislabeled by a black box.

04Prepare

The AI dividend

Tax the largest AI companies and the productivity windfall they're generating, and invest it directly in the kids doing the adjusting: tutoring, counselors, and AI-ready classrooms. They get the disruption. Our kids get the dividend.

05Prepare

Skills that pay in the AI economy

Career pathways built for the jobs that are actually coming, and a hard demand that the productivity boom reaches working families in real wages, not just corporate margins.

The Every Family Votes Campaign

Our power isn't a poll. It's a vote.

Your Vote. Your Voice. Your Future.

Our neighborhoods, communities, and country are all made stronger when every family votes. We're getting parents registered, spreading the word, and casting the ballots that make leaders listen. Flex your voting muscle in every election, local, state, and federal.

The Floor Under All Of It

Rights With Teeth.

These promises are commitments, and commitments need enforcement. Underneath all five sits a Student Bill of Rights: civil rights protections for every child, a parent ombudsman, and a private right of action, so when a child's rights are violated, their family can do something about it.

Rights without remedies are just press releases.

The Student Bill of Rights

  • Civil rights protections for every student, including immigrant students, multilingual learners, students experiencing homelessness, and students with disabilities.
  • A parent ombudsman in every state, so families have somewhere to turn.
  • A private right of action, so a violated right comes with a real remedy.

The Scorecard

This agenda doubles as a test.

Every candidate, every governor, every mayor who wants the parent vote answers these questions. We're keeping score.

1

Will you guarantee every kid a safe school, safe online, with a trusted adult in reach?

2

Will you deliver families real economic relief now, so the paycheck covers the month?

3

Will you sign an enforceable Right to Read?

4

Will you promise every graduate a credit, a credential, or a paycheck?

5

Will you make the winners of the AI economy help fund the families and schools preparing kids for it?

Answer yes and you'll have a coalition behind you. Answer no and we'll remember. Families are listening, and families vote.

A large group of National Parents Union parent leaders at a bilingual family convening

Every Family, Every Language

This is what organized looks like.

Take Action

Parent power isn't a slogan. It's organized.

Add your name, chip in what you can, and help us hold every leader to this agenda. Real action on the issues that decide whether your family gets to breathe.

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