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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.

Updated
on 2 June 2026See updates
School types: All•School phases: All•Ref: 5639
Contents
  1. Note on terminology
  2. Your school should seek legal advice on any challenging decisions it makes 
  3. Understand your school's legal responsibilities 
  4. What this means in practice 
  5. Names and pronouns
  6. Admissions for single-sex schools 
  7. Recording names and gender on school systems
  8. Recording names and gender on the census

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

While we can't give a steer on individual cases, here we set out the essential rules your school leaders should follow and some considerations to have in mind. It's likely they'll also need to seek legal advice on more complex situations (see more below). 

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