North Dakota has enacted a new law aimed at strengthening parental rights and maintaining safety and privacy standards for women and girls in schools.
The legislation, known as House Bill 1144, was signed into law by Republican Governor Kelly Armstrong on Thursday after passing through both chambers of the state legislature with strong bipartisan support. The Republican-controlled North Dakota House of Representatives voted 75–14 in favor, and the Senate approved it with a 40–7 vote.
The bill prohibits school districts from establishing policies regarding a student's gender identity without prior consent from the student's parents or legal guardian. It also states that “school officials are not allowed to withhold or conceal information about a student's transgender status from the student's parent or legal guardian,” effectively ensuring parental access to such information.
House Bill 1144 amended state law regarding restroom and shower room use within schools. It mandates that “a restroom or shower room on school grounds, which is accessible by multiple individuals at one time, must be designated for use exclusively for males or exclusively for females and may be used only by members of the designated sex.” It specifies that multi-stall “gender neutral restrooms and shower rooms” are prohibited.
Additional changes to state law made in the measure enable schools to “change the designation of a restroom or shower room from one designated sex to the other designated sex to accommodate a school-sponsored event.”
The legislation authorizes parents to “submit a complaint to the school district” if officials attempt to “withhold or conceal information about a student's transgender status from the student's parent or legal guardian,” reinforcing the rights of parents to be informed about their children’s gender status.
This law builds upon legislation enacted two years earlier that restricted transgender students from using restrooms and other sex-segregated spaces that do not align with their biological sex. North Dakota is among 19 states that require trans-identified individuals to use restrooms matching their biological sex in some or all cases.
States like Alabama, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, and West Virginia enforce similar restrictions for trans-identified people in K-12 schools and government buildings, while Florida, Montana, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming prohibit trans-identified males from using women’s restrooms across all government-owned facilities, including educational institutions. Other states such as Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia have laws specific to K-12 schools, limiting trans-identified students’ access to sex-segregated facilities within school premises.
Last week, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller stated that the U.S. Department of Justice would consider it “child abuse” if public school officials assist students in gender transitions at school without their parents’ knowledge or involvement.
