This bill amends RCW 28A.642.010 and adds a new section to chapter 28A.642 RCW that establishes new definitions and expressly prohibits discrimination in Washington public schools on the basis of race, ethnicity, creed, religion, color, national origin, honorably discharged veteran or military status, sexual orientation, gender expression, gender identity, homelessness, immigration status, the presence of any sensory, mental, or physical disability, neurodivergence, or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal by a person with a disability. Legally, the bill modifies an existing education anti‑discrimination statute and creates a new statutory definitions section. It incorporates the definitions from chapter 49.60 RCW throughout chapter 28A.642 RCW except where the bill provides its own definitions or the context requires otherwise, and it references the federal McKinney‑Vento homeless assistance act for the homelessness definition. The change affects Washington public schools and students, including students who are homeless, immigrants, neurodivergent, or who use service animals. The record shows the bill was read for the first time on 02/05/25 and was referred to the Committee on Education. The extracted text contains parenthetical markup that makes it unclear how some prior statutory wording is being altered, and no effective date or other sections beyond the new definitions and the amended RCW 28A.642.010 are provided in the available material.

If enacted, Washington public schools would be required to bar discrimination on a wider range of characteristics—explicitly including homelessness, immigration status, neurodivergence, and use of a trained dog guide or service animal—because the bill inserts those categories and gives definitions for terms like gender identity, gender expression, ethnicity, and neurodivergence. That would extend explicit nondiscrimination protections to students who are homeless, immigrants, neurodivergent, or who use service animals and make schools responsible for treating those students the same as others under the amended statute. The groups most affected are school districts, administrators, and staff, who will likely need to revise handbooks, update nondiscrimination policies, train personnel, and adjust practices to cover the newly named categories; students in the listed groups are most likely to see clearer protections. The bill does not specify funding, enforcement mechanisms, or an effective date, so who pays for training or how compliance and remedies will be handled remains unclear.