in Dart, is there a `parse` for `bool` as there is for `int`?

No. Simply use:

String boolAsString;
bool b = boolAsString == 'true';

Bool has no methods.

var val = 'True';
bool b = val.toLowerCase() == 'true';

should be easy enough.

With recent Dart versions with extension method support the code could be made look more like for int, num, float.

extension BoolParsing on String {
  bool parseBool() {
    return this.toLowerCase() == 'true';
  }
}
  

void main() {
  bool b = 'tRuE'.parseBool();
  print('${b.runtimeType} - $b');
}

See also https://dart.dev/guides/language/extension-methods

To the comment from @remonh87 If you want exact 'false' parsing you can use

extension BoolParsing on String {
  bool parseBool() {
    if (this.toLowerCase() == 'true') {
      return true;
    } else if (this.toLowerCase() == 'false') {
      return false;
    }
    
    throw '"$this" can not be parsed to boolean.';
  }
}