(The Center Square) – Washington voters will once again have an opportunity to weigh in on a parental rights initiative on the November 2026 ballot.
On Monday, the Washington Secretary of State (SOS) informed Let’s Go Washington (LGW), the political committee that backed IL26-001, that they turned in more than enough valid signatures for the measure to be sent to the legislature.
“This announcement comes after last week’s notification that IL26-638 was also verified and sent to the legislature, meaning that LGW has, again, qualified its full slate of initiatives,” wrote LGW in a news release emailed to The Center Square.
Democratic leadership in Olympia has already informed TCS that they will not hold public hearings on either measure, despite the Washington Constitution spelling out that initiatives to the Legislature should be given top priority.
That means both measures will go directly to the ballot.
LGW Founder, Brian Heywood, issued the following statement on the announcement from SOS:
“I am proud to announce that we qualified our second initiative for the legislature. Why did we run this initiative? For the parents of the kids that were groomed and molested by a teacher in Tacoma and didn’t know anything was going on. For kids like Eleanor who was kidnapped and is now being hidden by Puyallup School District from her parents because school administrators kept secrets about her health and wellness from her parents. For all the families who signed onto I-2081 with the hope that teachers and parents could be on the same side, advocating for what’s best for their kids.”
According to SOS, the validity rate of the initiative was 87.4% “representing the highest validity rating LGW has ever received during a signature gathering campaign,” wrote LGW.
As reported by TCS, petition gatherers endured dozens of threats, vandalism and in some cases physical violence by opponents of the initiatives in the months leading up to the group turning in the petitions.
One of the most vocal groups coming against the initiatives is Washington Families for Freedom – a coalition campaign supported by the Washington Education Association (WEA).
“Domestic violence groups, law enforcement officers, doctors and many others oppose Heywood’s initiatives because they put vulnerable students at greater risk of abuse at home and at school,” WFF spokesperson Lexi Koren emailed The Center Square back in December.
WEA and other progressive organizations are expected to spend millions on campaigns to defeat the initiatives.
Meantime, Washington lawmakers are backing a bill critics call “the initiative killer”, as it would complicate the signature gathering process.
SB 5973– sponsored by Sen. Javier Valdez, D-Seattle, would require a minimum of 1000 signatures to be submitted to the Secretary of State from those who support the measure, before the issue is given an official title and signature gathering can begin to ensure ‘viability’ of the issue.
Valdez’s bill would also ban the practice of paying signature gatherers for the number of signatures they acquire. They could still be paid by the hour, but not per-signature.
As reported by TCS, that bill passed out of a legislative committee last Friday.
