South Carolina senators voted Wednesday, March 25, 2026, to add public colleges to an existing state law requiring K-12 public school students to use bathrooms and locker rooms corresponding to their biological sex at birth. (File photo/Getty Images)
COLUMBIA — South Carolina senators voted to add public colleges to an existing state law requiring K-12 public school students to use bathrooms and locker rooms corresponding to their biological sex at birth.
The Senate, in a 35-2 vote Wednesday, passed the bill that largely mimics a law inserted in the state budget in 2024. Both “no” votes came from Charleston County Democrats: Sens. Ed Sutton of Charleston and Deon Tedder of North Charleston.
Like existing law, the proposal threatens state funding for schools that give someone permission to use multi-stalled bathrooms or changing facilities, such as locker rooms, that don’t align to their sex at birth. Schools and colleges that don’t “take reasonable steps” toward keeping men out of women’s restrooms, and vice-versa, risk temporarily losing a quarter of state aid school until they show they’re in compliance.
Senators added a phrase specifying that reasonable steps can include signs on bathroom doors.
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Beyond extending bathroom rules to colleges, the proposal also lets people sue as a way of enforcement.
Senators made two major changes to what the House added during its floor debate in January.
Requiring every K-12 school and college to provide at least one single-user restroom in every building was key toward getting overwhelming support in the House. Its sponsor, Rep. Tom Hartnett, R-Mount Pleasant, said that option gave people “an opportunity to protect their dignity.”
But in the Senate, Democrats raised concerns about mandating that in every building. Clemson University, senators said, has more than 200 buildings on its main campus. How many of those have more than two bathrooms was unknown, and legislators questioned how much it might cost them to build new ones.
So, senators erased “every building” and added a provision allowing a temporary or portable bathroom to suffice.
While that eased some concerns, the possibility of porta-potties or long treks across campus to get to the only available restroom left others worried.
Sen. Tameika Isaac Devine brought up a scene from the movie “Hidden Figures.” In the film, a Black female mathematician working for NASA had to run through the rain to get to a restroom during segregation in Virginia in the 1960s.
“If we are giving universities an out, we just want to make sure they’re not unreasonable to accessibility,” the Columbia Democrat said.
The amendment’s sponsor, Sen. Richard Cash, R-Powdersville, brushed off those concerns saying he believed school administrators would act reasonably.
Senators also reversed the House’s limits on who can sue a school.
During its floor debate, the House approved restricting lawsuits to students and staff of the school. Allowing anyone to sue could be especially problematic for universities, legislators argued successfully, since the bathroom rules apply to college sports arenas and stadiums.
But the Senate changed it back to allow anyone on campus to sue if they “encounter a person of the opposite sex” while using a facility and can prove the school gave that person permission or failed to take “reasonable steps” to stop them. Legislators say those steps can also include setting clear policies.
At colleges, people can sue if they’re required to live in the same room with someone of the opposite biological sex. The same applies to any school-sponsored trips.
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The bill says lawsuits can seek a court ruling forcing a school to make changes and pay the winning attorney’s “reasonable” costs and fees.
The Senate must take one more vote on the bill before returning it to the House to consider the changes.
A similar law has been on the books as a budget rule for two years since Sen. Wes Climer, R-Rock Hill, proposed it.
Budget rules — though officially one-year laws — roll over from one year to the next. No one tried to take it out last year, despite a federal lawsuit challenging it.
That lawsuit, filed in November 2024 on behalf of a then-eighth-grade transgender student in Berkeley County, is on pause until the U.S. Supreme Court hands down a decision on cases involving laws in West Virginia and Idaho on transgender athletes.
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Courtesy of South Carolina Daily Gazette
