[1][2] The law has been invoked by parents in the Compton, Adelanto, Anaheim, and LAUSD school districts of California.
[10] In May 2009, Green Dot formed Parent Revolution, led by Ben Austin[11] who was a former Clinton White House Staffer and Los Angeles Deputy Mayor.
[19] In January 2010, the California legislature passed by one vote in both houses a "Parent Empowerment" law (Article 3 of SBX54, introduced by Senator Gloria J. Romero and Senator Bob Huff and signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger), becoming the first state in the nation with a parent trigger law.
The film is a fictionalized account of the passage of the parent trigger law in L.A., and was shown at the DNC by Democrats for Education Reform, a pro-charter school political action committee.
[27] Similar parent trigger laws have been proposed in more than 20 states, and been enacted in Mississippi, Texas, Indiana, and Louisiana.
[30] The New York Times reported in 2010 that Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel support parent trigger laws.
With the assistance of twelve parent volunteers, the group collected signatures for a petition to transform their failing school, Desert Trails Elementary.
In December 2015, AESD revoked the school's charter for failing to address the concerns that the Board of Trustees had for the campus.
DTPA denied the allegations and responded to the decision that the District is making retaliatory inquiries and accusations[47] that have nothing to do with student progress.
[49] Although continuing litigation concerning ownership of the property is unresolved, this decision ended AESD's involvement with the campus beginning with the 2016-17 School Year.
[50] Parents organized to discuss ways to improve the school for their students, and held stakeholder meetings with teachers and district leaders.
As a result of the needs assessment, the District implemented a turnaround plan that has community support, to include a new principal, more electives for ELL students, more freedom for teachers to teach creatively, and a strong college-going culture.
The parents union negotiated a historic partnership between the district and a charter school where they would run the campus collaboratively, with the district running the K-4 program (with a reform union contract) and a charter school that was co-located on the campus operates the new 5-8 program.
[54] The parents also negotiated a new pre-K program, run by the District, as well as a presence on the principal and teacher hiring committees.
[55] Groups such as the Center for Teacher Quality and Fund Education Now have described the campaign for parent trigger laws as astroturfing.
In the case of Parent Revolution, critics point to sponsorship by the Green Dot charter company.
Related arguments have been directed at the 2012 film Won't Back Down, which promotes parent trigger laws.
Won't Back Down was created by Philip Anschutz's Walden Media and supported by Walmart and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
[36] Others noted that McKinley's test scores were already improving and suggested that Parent Revolution chose the school cynically in order to capture its positive results.