North Dakota Gov. Armstrong signed HB1144 restricting transgender students' bathroom access and requiring schools to out them to parents

On May 1, 2025, North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong signed House Bill 1144, amending state law on transgender student accommodations and restroom use in public schools. The law bars K-12 public schools from maintaining all-gender multi-stall restrooms or shower rooms, other than those built before July 1, 2025, and requires such facilities be designated for use by one sex only, though schools may temporarily redesignate facilities for school-sponsored events. It separately requires school staff who learn that a student is transgender to notify that student's parents. The bill passed the North Dakota House and Senate and took effect immediately upon signing under an emergency clause; violations can draw a complaint to school districts or the state Attorney General's Office, with courts empowered to impose civil fines up to $2,500 per violation.

Sen. Randy Lemm (R-Hillsboro), a bill supporter, said the measure "reinforces the message that our laws are not arbitrary or without meaning." The law includes exceptions permitting bathroom assistance for students with developmental disabilities and does not itself restrict which pronouns a school may use or require.

By barring transgender students from using school restrooms consistent with their gender identity and compelling staff to disclose a student's transgender status to parents without the student's consent, the law both restricts a marginalized group's access to ordinary school facilities and forces the outing of transgender and gender-nonconforming students — a combination already recorded in the archive in comparable form through New Hampshire's nh-discriminatory-policy-74c362e2 parental-disclosure law and multiple states' school-bathroom-designation statutes.