Florida is launching an Office of Parental Rights to safeguard family rights in fields ranging from children’s health services to school library book selections, Attorney General James Uthmeier said Tuesday.

The Attorney General’s Office said the new agency will be the first of its type in the country, designed “to empower parents and protect children.”

Challenging perceived overreach by local school districts or service providers appears to be an early emphasis for the unit.

“Your parents typically know what’s best for you,” Uthmeier told a roomful of fourth-grade students at Jacksonville Classical Academy, a charter school that Republican leaders have visited before. “…It’s not the role of the government to raise kids.”

Asked an example of a subject the new office would address, the attorney general suggested complaints about “secret surveys” administered to children in some public schools.

Kimberly Hermann , executive director of the conservative Southeastern Legal Foundation, joined Uthmeier at Jacksonville Classical and talked about surveys that ask about anxiety or mental health issues affecting children or family members as a potential infringement on parental rights.

The foundation has represented a mother in Kentucky fighting with her local school district, whom the foundation said refused to show her questions on a survey, arguing they were copyrighted by another party.

Duval County school administrators encountered blowback from state education officials in 2023 for administering a federally funded Youth Risk Behavior Survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The survey asked questions about topics including bullying, substance use, sexual activity and suicide that some parents found inappropriate and the school district canceled its participation in the CDC research.

Separate from parental rights, the Attorney General’s Office has offices for civil rights, statewide prosecution and an inspector general as well as divisions for antitrust issues, civil litigation, consumer protection, criminal appellate work, victim services and enforcement of the state’s lemon law on automobile defects.

This story was updated to correct the name of the Southeastern Legal Foundation.