Equal Athletic Opportunities Act

This bill, if passed, will update part of the Code of Georgia about sex and gender in school sports with a new law called the "Quality Basic Education Act"  

• Code of Georgia: These are the rules or laws for the state of Georgia that say what people in Georgia can and cannot do.

• Sex: whether a doctor calls someone “male” or “female” when they are born based on the genitalia and physical features they are born with

• Gender: How a person feels about being boy, girl, or something else. This can be different from the sex were called when they were born.

This will let the state choose which students can take part in which school sports activities and events  

The bill says it stops discrimination based on sex in these activities and events    

It sets specific rules for which students can take part:  

• Stops students who were assigned male by a doctor when they were born from joining sports activities or events set for female students, even if they now live as a girl. 

• Stops students who were assigned female by a doctor when they were born from joining sports activities or events set for boy students, even if they now live as a boy

 This bill sets specific meanings for words related to sex, including:

• "Coed" – Involves both males and females  

•  "Compete" or "competition" – Students or teams taking part in an school athletic activity or event  

•  "Covered entity" – Local school systems, public schools, and participating private schools  

  • "Participating private school" – A private school competing against public schools or local schools

• "Female," "woman," or "girl" – A student whose sex is  female  

• "Male," "man," or "boy" – A student whose sex is male   

• "Sex" – Refers to biological sex based on reproductive biology and genetics at birth  

If passed, this bill gets rid of any conflicting laws.  

Allows separate teams for each sex if it makes sense for skill, fairness, safety, or when it's a contact sport

• Contact sport: A sport where players often touch or bump into each other as part of the game.

  • In this bill, contact sports include basketball, boxing, football, ice hockey, lacrosse, martial arts, soccer, rugby, and wrestling 

If a school has a team for one sex but not the other, the excluded sex can still try out unless it's a contact sport  

If passed, this bill would make it so each school sports team must be labeled as:  

• Males, men, or boys  

• Females, women, or girls  

• Coed  

Schools must offer equal sports opportunities for both sexes, which includes:

• Choosing sports and competition levels  

• Equipment and supplies  

• Scheduling games and practices  

• The amount of travel allowed  

• Coaching and available help in school  

• Assigning and paying coaches and tutors  and 

• Locker rooms, practice, and competition spaces  

• Medical and training spaces and services  

• Sharing information so that people know about games, teams, and players through things like posters, announcements, or news.  

Spending different amounts of money on different sports groups unless it leads to not providing what is definitely needed for the team do what it is meant to do

Schools can provide separate bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers by sex, but they need to be similar.  

If this bill passes, putting students in gym classes based on their sex is allowed  

If a State University school offers a scholarship for a sport, local schools need to put money towards that sport unless a real survey shows that not enough students want to play that sport.

• Survey: A set of questions asked to a group of people to find out what they think or want.

• Surveys are good for 24 months and can be asked for by nine students  

If this bill is passed, each grouping of schools must have someone in charge of making sure the school is following this law and looking into complaints  

Schools have to set up processes so students or parents can make complaints  

Complaints should be responded to in 30 days, with the choice to bring it to the local and state leaders  

The State Board of Education can ask for plans to fix anything that breaks these rules.

• State Board of Education: A group of people who make rules and choices about schools in a state.

 If schools keep breaking the rules, punishments could include:  

• Stopping teams from having contests after the sports season ends

• Not getting money from the state

The Department of Education might publish a report once a year on money spent on sports and how many students are taking part.

• Department of Education: A government office that helps run schools and makes sure they follow the rules.

The second part of this bill, if passed, sets up a group to make sure the law is working as it is meant to. This group has the power to:  

• Meet at least twice a year  

• Check on how sports teams are labeled and travel issues  

• Test how the athletic association is doing and share what they find to the the group that focuses on high school sports, which is called the “High School Athletics Oversight Committee”

• Let athletic groups stop people who were said to be male when they were born from taking part in girls sports events, even if they are now living as a girl