Trans pupils: summary of legal rights

Understand your legal responsibilities around supporting pupils who identify as trans or who are questioning their gender, and learn how to make informed decisions around the arrangements you put in place.

Last reviewed on 22 June 2026See updates
School types: AllSchool phases: AllRef: 10776
Contents
  1. Seek legal advice on any challenging decisions you make 
  2. Understand your legal responsibilities 
  3. What this means in practice
  4. Toilets and changing facilities
  5. Admissions for single-sex schools
  6. Recording names, sex and gender on school systems

21 May 2026: the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has published the Equality Act 2010: draft code of practice for services, public functions and associations. It includes proposed new statutory guidance around maintaining single-sex spaces such as toilets and changing rooms. We're currently seeking clarification on whether or not these proposed rules would apply to schools, and we'll update this article accordingly when we know more.

24 April 2025: the UK Supreme Court ruled that the legal definition of a woman in the Equality Act 2010 is based on biological sex. This means that any person with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment to female (i.e. a transgender woman) is not considered ‘a woman’ under equality legislation.

Find out more in our article on the Supreme Court ruling and see some suggestions for next steps.

While we can't advise on individual cases, within this