CPAN Issue Brief No. 1: Protecting Parental Authority from Government Overreach
Protecting Parental Authority from Government Overreach
In recent years, Colorado’s government has expanded its reach into the most sacred spaces of family life: education, healthcare, family court, child protective services, foster care, and most alarmingly, the parent-child relationship itself. Taken together, these policies and practices reflect a systemic shift: transferring decision-making authority from parents to the state.
The Colorado Parent Advocacy Network (CPAN) presents this document as the first installment in the CPAN Issue Brief Series: Restoring Parental Authority in Colorado. This brief provides a focused analysis of how state policies surrounding education and youth mental health have steadily eroded parental rights under the guise of care and support.
Specifically, it examines the convergence of Transformative Social Emotional Learning (T-SEL), the taxpayer-funded iMatter Psychotherapy Program for minor children, and the expansion of school-based medical and behavioral health programs.
While not exhaustive of every harmful law or practice, this brief highlights the most immediate threats to a parent’s constitutional right to direct their child’s upbringing, care,and education. Future briefs in this series will address additional areas of concern, including Comprehensive Sexuality Education and the expanding reach of the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA).
Reprogramming the Classroom
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) was originally introduced as a framework to help students develop empathy and manage emotions. However, in Colorado classrooms, SEL has evolved into taxpayer-funded Transformative SEL (T-SEL), a model explicitly designed to reshape students’ values, beliefs, and identities.
T-SEL is not kindness. It is psychological and ideological conditioning wrapped in the deceptive language of “equity” and “belonging”. National organizations such as CASEL describe Transformative SEL as a tool for “redistributing power,” teaching students to “critically examine the root causes of inequity,” and promoting “justice-oriented civic engagement.”
The implementation of T-SEL in schools has shifted the classroom from learning to activism. Children as young as six are being asked to reflect on “power and privilege,” rank their identities, or discuss how their hobbies may be “racist.” These frameworks have little to do with reading, writing, or math. They are transformational, not educational.
Through CPAN’s Incident Reporting Tool, parents and educators have submitted hundreds of reports showing how T-SEL lessons steer children toward politically charged beliefs about gender, sexuality, race, climate, capitalism, and more. Teachers report being required to facilitate “gender identity exploration” lessons instead of core academics. Parents often discover this only after their children come home anxious, confused, or questioning who they are.
The Language of Deception
Colorado’s education and policy framework has become adept at using language that sounds compassionate but quietly removes parental authority. Terms like “belonging,” “affirming,” “inclusive,” and “whole child” have been redefined to justify ideological programming and to expand government control.
“Affirming” now means schools may socially transition a student’s self-declared gender including changes to name, pronouns, and access to private spaces suchas bathrooms, locker rooms, and overnight accommodations on field trips without informing parents. (HB24-1039 Non-Legal Name Changes Signed 4/29/2024)
Colorado law expands “Student Safety” to include identity and emotional constructs, then empowers schools and state contractors to act on those constructs without parents via minor-consent psychotherapy (HB19-1120 Youth Mental Health Education And Suicide Prevention Signed 5/16/2019; HB21-1258 Rapid Mental Health Response For Colorado Youth Signed 6/18/2021; SB24-001 Continue Youth Mental Health Services Program Signed 6/4/24), and statewide school mental-health screenings (HB23-1003 School Mental Health Assessment Signed 6/5/2023),
Under the banner of “Whole Child” Colorado law plants medical and behavioralhealth systems inside schools through the School Based Health Centers Grant Program (SB22-147 Behavioral Health-care Services For Children Signed 5/17/2022; HB24-034 Increase Access to School-Based Health Care Signed 6/5/2024), and layers on the iMatter portal described below (HB21-1258; SB24- 001) to route students to counseling outside the parent-child relationship.
Through this rebranding, the state has effectively relabeled compliance as care, indoctrination as inclusion, and surveillance as safety.
iMatter-The Mental Health Pipeline Without Parents
Perhaps no program better illustrates this systemic government overreach than the iMatter Program, created under HB21-1258 and made permanent through SB24-001. Marketed as a free mental health service for youth (ages 12 and up), iMatter uses taxpayer funds, nearly $12 million annually, to connect minors to “mental health support” without parental consent, notification or involvement.
Key Concerns
The law allows minors as young as 12 to access therapy independently, without parental knowledge.
Children can self-refer through a state portal and are immediately connected to a “crisis specialist.”
These “specialists” are not licensed psychologists or psychiatrists. They may be individuals with a four-year degree who complete a six-week online training, participate in one day of mock calls or texts, and pass a brief exam.
These individuals interact directly with children, via text, chat, or video, on issues as serious as gender identity, trauma, and self-harm, without ever notifying parents.
This program has normalized secret counseling relationships between minors and statecontracted adults under the guise of “mental health support.” Language such as “temporary,” “free,” and “confidential” conceals what it truly is: a taxpayer-funded system that bypasses families, replaces parental authority, and redefines who is responsible for a child’s emotional development.
The program’s expansion through SB24-001 ensures continuation, with no meaningful public oversight or outcome reporting.
Where It All Connects
Transformative SEL and statewide mental health screenings in public schools identify which children need “support.” The iMatter Program then provides the pipeline. Together, they form a closed loop of state control over the hearts and minds of children. Schools serve as the entry point, and the state’s mental health network delivers the intervention.
We are hearing from parents who discovered, after the fact, that their children were matched with counselors who encouraged gender transitions, assigned new pronouns, or discussed sensitive topics such as suicide well beyond their developmental level.
This is not theoretical! It is happening now in schools across Colorado.
CPAN’s Response
Through our Incident Reporting Tool, CPAN documents these violations and converts reports into action. To date, CPAN has:
Facilitated five lawsuits exposing government overreach in education and healthcare, most notably a constitutional challenge to HB25-1312 deceptively titled Legal Protections for Transgender Individuals for violating our First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
Submitted four Civil Rights Complaints exposing racial and sex-based discrimination and coercive gender practices.
Facilitated petitions and rallies gathering tens of thousands of signatures opposing laws that undermine parental authority.
Amplified parent and educator stories through local and national media, ensuring that families are no longer silenced or ignored.
CPAN’s mission is clear: to restore the parents’ voice to direct their child’s upbringing, care, and education. No child in Colorado should ever again be counseled, labeled, or transitioned behind their parents’ backs.
Policy Priorities
To correct course and restore balance between parents and the state, CPAN recommends the following policy actions:
Restore parental consent for all counseling and medical services offered through schools or state programs until the age of 18 or legal emancipation.
End taxpayer funding for unlicensed or unsupervised “crisis specialists.”
Eliminate taxpayer funding for all SEL and mental health curricula, and require transparency for all curricula including content, data use, and third-party partnerships.
Parents should never be silenced or sidelined. Colorado’s families want to raise their children according to their values and faith, but government policies are increasingly undermining that right. CPAN stands ready to support any leader committed to ending this overreach and restoring the rightful authority of parents in every aspect of their child’s life to include education, health, and care.
