Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders Signs Transgender School Bathroom Bill

A restroom in a library at the University of Florida displays a sign indicating that it can be used by men or women. Nanette Holt/The Epoch Times

Students in Arkansas public schools and charter schools must use bathrooms matching their biological sex, according to a bill recently signed into law by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

The law applies to communal restrooms and locker rooms for students in pre-K through 12th grade (pdf).

“The governor has said she will sign laws that focus on protecting and educating our kids, not indoctrinating them, and believes our schools are no place for the radical left’s woke agenda,” Alexa Henning, a spokesperson for Sanders, told Reuters. “Arkansas isn’t going to rewrite the rules of biology just to please a handful of far-left advocates.”

Sex is defined in the bill as the “physical condition of being male or female based on genetics and physiology.”

Schools are directed to rely on a student’s sex as identified on his or her original birth certificate.

Schools are required to “provide reasonable accommodation to an individual who is unwilling or unable to use a multiple occupancy restroom or changing area designated for the individual’s sex,” such as single-occupancy bathrooms and changing rooms.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivers the Republican response to the State of the Union address by President Joe Biden in Little Rock, Ark., on, Feb. 7, 2023. Al Drago/Pool/Getty Images

A reasonable accommodation doesn’t include access to a restroom or changing area designated for use by members of the opposite sex while the members of the opposite sex are present.

The law doesn’t apply to an individual who enters an opposite-sex area for custodial, maintenance, or inspection purposes or someone who’s providing emergency medical assistance or responding to an ongoing emergency, including a physical altercation.

The bill doesn’t prohibit schools from adopting policies to accommodate individuals protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act or young children in need of physical assistance when using such facilities.

Overnight Trips and Fines

The bill also applies to overnight trips sponsored by the school district.

During overnight trips, schools must ensure students share sleeping quarters only with a member or members of the same sex or provide them with single-occupancy sleeping quarters.

There’s an exception for opposite-sex students who are in the same immediate family.

Any allegation of noncompliance with the bill should be referred to the Professional Licensure Standards Board by filing a formal complaint.

School authorities in violation of the law are subject to fines of at least $1,000. The law also allows parents to file lawsuits to ensure that the law is enforced. Additional sanctions can be levied against the school district’s superintendent, school principals, directors, or teachers who are specifically found to be in violation of the law.

The bill’s sponsor in the House, state Rep. Mary Bentley, a Republican, told the state Senate Education Committee in March that the idea for the bill came after several members of a local school board approved a similar policy in October 2022, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.

Donn Mixon, an attorney representing roughly 45 districts in the state, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that some districts have allowed students to use the restrooms in which they feel most comfortable, and they'll have to change their policies.

Other districts already have policies in line with the new law.