Trans pupils: summary of legal rights

Understand your school's legal responsibilities around supporting pupils who identify as trans or who are questioning their gender, so you can make sure it's compliant.

Last reviewed on 24 June 2026See updates
School types: AllSchool phases: AllRef: 5639
Contents
  1. Your school should seek legal advice on any challenging decisions it makes 
  2. Understand your school's legal responsibilities 
  3. What this means in practice 
  4. Bullying
  5. Toilets and changing facilities 
  6. Admissions for single-sex schools 
  7. Recording names, sex and gender on school systems

This is a complex and evolving topic, and our understanding is developing all the time. 

A note on terminology 'Trans' is an umbrella term describing people “whose gender is not the same as, or does not sit comfortably with, the sex they were assigned at birth”. The DfE does not use the term 'transgender' or 'trans' with respect to children, due to the current legal framework; we use it here to reflect the language often used within the sector and among those who represent the affected groups. 'Gender-questioning' is the term that the DfE currently uses to describe children who are trans, as well as children who may be questioning