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Arkansas Gov. Sanders signed the LEARNS Act barring public-school instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation before grade five

On March 8, 2023, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed Senate Bill 294, the LEARNS Act, into law as Act 237 of 2023, a K-12 education omnibus. Section 16 of the enacted Act created Ark. Code § 6-16-157(c), which prohibits public school teachers from providing classroom instruction on "gender identity" or "sexual orientation" to students before the fifth grade. Observers compared the provision to Florida's law that critics call "Don't Say Gay."

Jurisdiction
Arkansas
Location
Little Rock, Arkansas

Abuses documented

Actors

On March 8, 2023, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed Senate Bill 294, the LEARNS Act, into law as Act 237 of 2023 at the State Capitol in Little Rock. The Act is a wide-ranging K-12 education omnibus covering vouchers, teacher pay, literacy, and school transformation. Among its provisions, Section 16 of the enacted Act created a new statute, Ark. Code § 6-16-157(c), which prohibits public school teachers from providing classroom instruction on "gender identity" or "sexual orientation" to students before the fifth grade, grouping those topics with sexually explicit materials and sexual reproduction.

The bill passed the Republican-supermajority Legislature by votes of 26-8 in the Senate and 78-21 in the House before Sanders signed it 16 days after it was introduced. NBC News described the curriculum restriction as similar to a Florida prohibition that critics call the "Don't Say Gay" law. This entry records only that early-grades curriculum provision restricting instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation, not the LEARNS Act as a whole, and not the separate "indoctrination" and critical-race- theory provision the same Act created in Ark. Code § 6-16-156.

Why we recorded this

Public education should not single out a group of people because of who they are. Section 16 of Arkansas's LEARNS Act created Ark. Code § 6-16-157(c), which bars public school teachers from providing any classroom instruction on gender identity or sexual orientation before the fifth grade. By writing sexual orientation and gender identity into law as topics forbidden from the early-grades classroom, the state marks LGBTQ people and their families as uniquely unspeakable in public schools. This records a government using curriculum law to disadvantage people on the basis of a protected characteristic.

Sources

  1. Act 237 of 2023 (enrolled SB294/LEARNS Act), Section 16 creating Ark. Code § 6-16-157(c) — Arkansas General Assembly primary accessed July 16, 2026
  2. SB294 bill status and history — Arkansas General Assembly primary accessed July 16, 2026
  3. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signs sweeping education bill, to praise and protests — ABC News secondary accessed July 16, 2026
  4. 2 Arkansas school districts deny claims that they broke a law on teaching race and sexuality — NBC News secondary accessed July 16, 2026

See also