AR HB1156

Public school districts and open-enrollment charter schools sponsoring overnight trips must ensure students share sleeping quarters with members of the same sex, unless provided single-occupancy quarters, with an exception for immediate family members of opposite sex.

Schools must designate multiple occupancy restrooms and changing areas (restrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms, shower rooms) exclusively for male or female use based on a student's sex as identified on their original birth certificate.

Schools must provide reasonable accommodations to individuals unwilling or unable to use facilities designated for their sex, which may include single-occupancy restrooms but cannot include access to opposite-sex facilities while members of the opposite sex are present.

Noncompliance violations subject superintendents, principals, charter school directors, teachers, and supervisors to minimum fines of $1,000 and additional sanctions determined by the Professional Licensure Standards Board.

Parents, legal guardians, or persons in loco parentis have a cause of action against schools if their student encounters an opposite-sex individual in a designated facility or is required to share sleeping quarters with an unrelated opposite-sex student.