Education rights pertain to access to and equality in education, including legal protections against gender-based discrimination, sexual harassment in schools, and policies ensuring the inclusion of girls, pregnant students, and gender-expansive individuals.
Ohio Senate Bill 1 of 2025, the Advance Ohio Higher Education Act, prohibits state colleges and universities from mandating diversity, equity, and inclusion training, while affirming that these institutions must provide equal opportunity regardless of race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. For more information see the Ohio Department of Higher Education Senate Bill 1 Information page.
Alabama Code § 16-40A-5 governs classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity within the Alabama public schools.
Alabama Code § 16-40A-2, outlines the required elements of sex education in the Alabama's public schools. The statute mandates that instruction emphasize abstinence as the only fully effective means of preventing unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, and that abstinence outside marriage is the expected social norm for unmarried students.
The Alabama Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act establishes state controls over gender-identity-related medical and educational interventions for minors. Section 2 sets the legislative findings, declaring that a child’s biological sex is immutable and that medical treatments intended to affirm a different gender present experimental risks.
Alaska Statutes §§ 14.30.360 and 14.30.361 jointly establish the framework for health, personal safety, and reproductive education in the state’s public schools. Section 14.30.360 encourages school districts to offer health education from kindergarten through grade twelve. This education may include instruction in personal safety, with specific attention to the identification and prevention of child abuse, abduction, neglect, sexual abuse, and domestic violence.
Section 14.18.010 et seq. prohibits discrimination in Alaska’s public education system on the basis of sex or race, applying to both students and employees. It bars discriminatory practices in employment, counseling and guidance services, athletic and recreational programs, course offerings, textbooks, and instructional materials. The law is grounded in the Alaska Constitution’s guarantee of equal educational opportunity, and mandates that all programs and opportunities be available without regard to sex.
Under Alaska Stat. § 14.30.356 the state, in consultation with school districts, must develop and approve a program targeting teen dating violence and abuse awareness and prevention for grades 7 through 12. The program must include training for employees and students, notices to parents, and periodic review by a qualified individual or committee to ensure alignment with accepted standards.
The Anti-Discrimination Act prohibits discrimination in certain settings on the grounds of any designated attribute, including sex, sexuality, marital status, pregnancy, parenthood, breastfeeding, gender identity, and sex characteristics. The settings in which discrimination based on a designated attribute is prohibited include: education, work, accommodation, provision of goods, services and facilities, clubs, and insurance, and superannuation.
In Beasley v. Alabama State University, 966 F. Supp. 1117 (M.D. Ala. 1997), the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama addressed systemic inequities in collegiate athletics under Title IX and the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Court rejected the appeal and upheld the decision of the lower court that a female Muslim high school student was not exempt from compulsory swimming lessons on the grounds of her religion. In the circumstances, there was not sufficient reason to undermine compulsory school attendance of children. The girl's parents had applied to the school for an exemption from swimming lessons on the grounds that Islamic dress custom did not allow their daughter to participate in co-educational swimming lessons.
