Family Council Submits Comments Supporting ADE Rules to Protect Student Privacy at School, On Overnight Trips

On Wednesday Family Council submitted public comments supporting the Arkansas Department of Education’s new rules protecting student’s physical privacy at public schools and on overnight school trips.

Last year Gov. Sanders signed Act 317 by Rep. Mary Bentley (R – Perryville) and Sen. Dan Sullivan (R – Jonesboro) protecting privacy in public school locker rooms, showers, restrooms, changing areas, and similar facilities.

The law requires public schools to designate these facilities for “male” or “female” use.

It also addresses sleeping accommodations for students on overnight school trips — something that has been a serious problem for students in other states.

The Department of Education’s new rules will act as executive policies to help ensure Arkansas’ public schools are properly following Act 317.

Below is a copy of the comments we submitted to the Arkansas Department of Education on Wednesday:

I am writing to express Family Council’s support for the DESE Rule Governing Public School Policies Relating to Overnight Travel and Use of Public-School Lavatories. The language in the rules is consistent with Act 317 of 2023, a law Family Council supported during the 94th General Assembly. The rules adequately address public school policies concerning the designation of shower rooms, changing areas, restrooms, locker rooms, and similar facilities at public schools. They also properly address sleeping accommodations for students on overnight school trips.

According to a demand letter by attorneys at Alliance Defending Freedom, in June of 2023, the Jefferson County Public Schools in Colorado assigned two girls to share a hotel room with a male student during a school-sponsored, overnight trip for fifth-graders to Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. This decision jeopardized the physical privacy and safety of the students and caused them unnecessary stress. DESE’s proposed rules promulgated in accordance with Act 317 will help ensure that students in Arkansas do not encounter a similar situation.

Boys and girls deserve privacy when they shower, sleep, change clothes, or use the restroom at school or on a school trip. These rules promulgated in accordance with Act 317 will protect the physical privacy and safety of public school students. We fully support the rules and look forward to their implementation.

Every student has a right to physical privacy and safety at school and on school-sponsored trips.

Public school students’ school records are protected by law, because we value student privacy. A student’s physical privacy should be just as important.

Act 317 helps protect the physical privacy of public school students in school showers, locker rooms, restrooms, and similar facilities on campus, and it helps protect physical privacy and safety on overnight trips.

Family Council was pleased to support Act 317. We are grateful to the General Assembly for passing Act 317, we are grateful to Gov. Sanders for signing it into law, and we are grateful to the Arkansas Department of Education for promulgating good rules to implement it.

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