By: Mary Steurer (ND Monitor)
Gov. Kelly Armstrong on Thursday signed a bill that prevents K-12 public schools from having all-gender bathrooms. It allows parents to file complaints if they think their child’s school is not following state laws governing accommodations for transgender students.
House Bill 1144 updates a law adopted in 2023 that prevents transgender students from using bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender.
It also bars schools and teachers from requiring or prohibiting someone to use students’ preferred pronouns. On top of this, the law requires schools and teachers to tell a child’s parents if they learn the child is transgender.
House Bill 1144 is meant to give teeth to that law by adding legal penalties. Some lawmakers said they believed schools would not follow the policy without the threat of consequences.
The bill “reinforces the message that our laws are not arbitrary or without meaning,” said Sen. Randy Lemm, R-Hillsboro, who spoke in favor of the bill on the Senate Floor.
Concerned parents who believe their school is not following the law may now file a complaint with their school district. If they aren’t satisfied with the school district’s response, they can take the issue up with the North Dakota Attorney General’s Office.
Courts that find a school has broken the law can issue fines of up to $2,500 per violation.
The amended law also states that any multi-stall bathroom or shower room must be designated exclusively for boys or girls. Multi-stall bathrooms or shower rooms cannot be unisex. In response to concerns that the law would force some school districts to spend millions renovating their bathroom, lawmakers added a provision that exempts restrooms created before July 1, 2025 from the policy.
In a conference committee, legislators also added two other exemptions to the law. One makes sure the law doesn’t prevent students with developmental disabilities from getting bathroom assistance from paraprofessionals if needed.
The other gives schools the ability to temporarily change designation from one sex to another to accommodate school-sponsored events. This could allow a visiting girls sports teams to use a locker room for boys, for example.
Both chambers on Monday approved the amended bill. The House approved the policy by a vote of 75-14; and the Senate, by a vote of 40-7. The new law went into effect immediately after it was signed.
Armstrong last week also signed into law House Bill 1181, which amends Century Code to state “words used to reference an individual’s gender mean the individual’s sex.”
The bill’s sponsor, SuAnn Olson, R-Baldwin, previously called it a “common sense” proposal that is “scientifically honest.”
Olson said the bill was meant to bring North Dakota into compliance with an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in January establishing a two-gender policy for the federal government.
Opponents of the policy criticized it as discriminatory to transgender and intersex North Dakotans.
