A recent US Supreme Court decision is stirring up fresh debate over what students are learning in the classroom and who gets to decide.

The ruling expanded parental rights to opt their children out of certain lessons for religious reasons.

And some districts say more New Jersey parents are now choosing to pull their kids from class.

The court's decision centered on the use of LGBTQ storybooks, but it could reshape how many other sensitive topics are taught.

For more on this, I'm joined by our education and child welfare writer Hannah Gross.

Hannah.

Good to see you, as always.

So what do we know about how this ruling is affecting school districts on the ground?

Is there a surge?

Are things pretty much status quo?

What's happening?

So far, based on conversations with school board attorneys, it seems like things are pretty status quo.

There have been a few opt out requests that have come in so far, and they're expecting an increase as the school year goes on.

But so far, it's not overwhelming for districts.

And maybe as more parents learn that they have this option now or that it's available, more broadly available.

Exactly.

What do they have to do, a parent, in order to be granted that opt out.

Is there paperwork?

Do they need to provide some type of detailed reasoning?

What does it look like?

So they would need to reach out to the school district and explain which specific parts of the curriculum goes against their religious upbringing of their children.

So you can't say "I broadly object to being taught about gender in schools."

You have to be a little bit more specific than that, is what the attorneys I spoke to have said.

And so some districts are coming up with protocols or forms that families can submit, especially if they're in an area where they know there's a big religious community and they're expecting a lot of people to opt out.

Yeah.

So I imagine that the attorneys, school attorneys are working with those districts now pretty closely.

Do we have any example of what that looks like, the forms or what type of information, proof they have to submit?

There's not an across the board requirement.

So it's going to depend on the district, how they handle it.

But the attorneys are advising that some higher up administrators are the ones making these decisions who have some sort of legal background and are in touch with the school board attorneys.

So it's not just classroom teachers who are deciding when is a valid time to opt out and when is not.

Okay.

I do want to clarify, though, this ruling does not ban the teaching of LGBTQ inclusive curriculum.

Is that right?

That's still required under New Jersey State law.

That's correct.

So the ruling has no influence on what's taught in schools.

It really only relates to a parent's right to opt their kid out of certain lessons.

But the lessons can continue to be taught.

And in New Jersey, we're actually required to have an LGBTQ inclusive curriculum under a 2019 law that requires information about LGBTQ people to be taught across different classes and subjects.

I'm curious, though, whether or not there could be other implications.

Of course, as you said, it doesn't affect what's being taught, but is there a factor here where teachers could maybe scale back some of the teachings in order to avoid backlash or may maybe school districts make that decision, particularly in communities where they know it's a hot button issue?

It's possible.

And some advocates I spoke to did express that concern.

And something we've seen with recent challenges to books where some districts might decide just, "Oh, we don't want to include this book as a required reading" or "We're going to pull this from the library on our own."

So there is a concern that teachers or districts might scale back or at least limit this information to certain class periods or units to make the opt out process more seamless and less disruptive to the school day.

But it sounds like overall, it's still a bit of a hurdle that a family would need to go through in order for their child to get this opt out permission, which maybe depends on the district as well.

All right.

Let me switch gears quickly, because we've been talking a lot about the 5756 policy.

This all plays together in terms of the broader parental rights movement and who exactly has jurisdiction, whose rights supersede others.

You've been covering and we've been following a case out of Hunterdon County, a father who sued the Delaware Valley Regional High School about his daughter, who chose to use male pronouns in the school.

The school did not notify him.

Is this the type of ruling from the Supreme Court that could have any play there when it comes to parental rights overall?

Walk us through that.

So the Supreme Court ruling really deals specifically with parents rights to opt out of classroom materials.

It wouldn't influence whether a parent can opt their child out of referring to a student with their chosen pronouns or referring to them by a name or using a certain bathroom or even including Pride Month messaging during the school year.

That's all outside of the scope of the Supreme Court ruling.

What about in terms of just what the state law is in terms of an individual's rights, a parents rights?

I mean, what do we know based off of what's played out from this lawsuit?

And there are others?

I mean, both of these cases are dealing with kind of the same question about when do parental rights or the rights of a parent over their child's upbringing supersede or how do they interact with school district policies and the education of all of the kids in school?

What are you hearing as you talk to superintendents, advocates and parents?

You know, this is a new school year and a lot of cases it's going to be a very different school year for some of those reasons that we mentioned.

But what are they saying about all this?

Because last year you covered a lot of Board of Education meetings where things were just flying off the handle.

Is that what we expect moving forward?

And what are you hearing?

Even with all of the changes at the federal level, the superintendents I've spoken to say their commitment to students remains the same.

They have to follow the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination and look out for all students and make sure they get the education that they're entitled to under the law.

So none of that should be changing.

Of course, we have a governor's race coming up in November, a new governor who will be taking the helm.

Room there for any of this to change?

Anything's possible.

I mean, we don't know what November holds.

We have two candidates with different stances on education and parental rights.

And it will definitely be interesting to see how that plays out in terms of the state school board and the Department of Education at the state level.

All right.

You can read all of Hannah's reporting, including on this topic on our website, NJSpotlightNews.org.

Hannah, thanks as always for coming in.

Good to see you.

Thanks for having me.