Parents urged to press Calif. school districts on plans to provide mixed-sex bathrooms for students
A new California law requiring public schools to provide at least one mixed-sex restroom option on every campus is set to take effect as students return for the new school year.
Senate Bill 760, authored by then-state Sen. Josh Newman, D-Fullerton, mandates that schools offer at least one “all-gender” restroom, a move which supporters say is to create safer spaces for trans-identified students.
The law allows the facility to be either single-stall or multi-stall, and requires it to be unlocked and easily accessible, and mandates the provision of menstrual products starting in third grade.
The California Department of Education (CDE) has published guidance on its website detailing “All Access Restrooms” for schools, including background information, planning and design resources, and best practices for gender-inclusive facilities.
According to the CDE, traditional school restrooms are gendered, with separate facilities for boys and girls that often include features such as urinals and menstrual product dispensers. All-access restrooms are not gendered and are open to all students. The guidance describes them as facilities containing multiple private water closet compartments or rooms, with self-contained or shared lavatories.
Under its “rationale” for creating the mixed-sex “all access” bathrooms, the CDE website states: “Being able to access restrooms safely and without fear of shame or stigma affects student health, learning, attendance, and school climate for all students,” adding that doing so helps school districts “provide safe, inclusive, and comfortable learning environments that positively affect student achievement and wellbeing.”
In response to the state’s guidance, Greg Burt, vice president of the California Family Council, said parents shouldn’t be fooled by the lack of an official mandate.
“How each school fulfills this new requirement is entirely up to the local school board,” Burt said in a statement provided to The Christian Post. “A conservative district might simply relabel a single-occupancy nurse’s bathroom and call it done. A progressive district could use this law as a green light to convert entire multi-stall restroom facilities to mixed-sex use. Parents need to find out right now what their district is planning.”
Burt pointed to converted restrooms at the state Capitol as an example of what such facilities can look like.
“I’m pretty sure most parents would object to their young children sharing a bathroom while men are using the urinals,” he added. “Even without the adult issue, I’ve witnessed the chaos that occurs when young boys are pouring into the same bathrooms as the girls while visiting the Capitol. The girls are not happy about it.”
The state website also attributes a "trans educator" identified as "Benjamin K." who describes sex-segregated restrooms as a source of “suffering in traditionally gendered systems" and calls bathroom access “an education equity/education justice issue.”
“I spent years making myself sick — either from anxiety about having to choose which bathroom to use, or from refusing to use the bathroom at all and suffering from chronic infections — because there was nowhere at school where I could safely go for fear of bullying or harassment,” the quote stated. “This work is life saving for students who have been suffering in traditionally gendered systems for so long."
The CDE guidance claims that it's not a mandate requiring all restrooms to be converted, but rather to “support architects and school leaders in their planning process when designing safe and inclusive restroom facilities that increase choice for all students.”
In 2023, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 760 into law, paving the way for all public schools statewide to provide gender-neutral bathrooms on or before July 1. At the time, Newsom called the legislation “one of the most robust laws in the nation” in protection of LGBT-friendly school bathrooms.
