Senate Bill 5097 (69th Legislature, 2025), prefiled 12/20/24 and referred to the Committee on Early Learning & K-12 Education, amends RCW 28A.600.200 and adds new sections to chapter 28A.600 RCW and chapter 49.60 RCW. It directs local school boards to reaffirm or delegate authority over interscholastic athletics to the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) or another voluntary nonprofit and requires that the WIAA or delegated nonprofit adopt “competitiveness rules” to create and foster fair competitive opportunities in girls’ athletics. Those rules must address appropriate competitive opportunities regardless of gender identity, may consider physiological and hormonal variation, and may exclude individual competitors from girls’ events if the competitor would have an unfair advantage based on endocrine characteristics. The bill bars competitiveness rules from authorizing a sex verification or dispute process but permits age-appropriate sampling for relevant hormone levels to determine unfair advantage or safety risk, and it encourages maintaining distinct boys’ and girls’ teams. Legally, the bill both modifies existing law (amending RCW 28A.600.200) and creates new statutory provisions (new sections in chapter 28A.600 and chapter 49.60). It adds procedural requirements that participation rules be written, provide notice of reasons for a decision, and give a fair opportunity to contest before a final determination rejecting participation. It defines “knowingly” for purposes of these sections, allows the association or delegated nonprofit to impose penalties on coaches, administrators, and students, and limits student penalties to cases where the student knowingly violated rules or gained a significant competitive advantage or materially disadvantaged another student; penalties must be proportional. Decisions imposing penalties are treated as school district decisions and may be appealed under the cited RCWs. The new section to chapter 49.60 RCW states that decisions under the competitiveness rules do not constitute unlawful discrimination under that chapter. Important specifics are not included in the extracted text: the exact prior text of RCW 28A.600.200 is not shown so precise changes relative to prior law are unclear; the bill does not provide the actual competitiveness rules, selection criteria or definition for a “voluntary nonprofit entity,” or the specific tests, thresholds, or procedures that constitute “age-appropriate sampling” of hormone levels; the detailed appeal procedures under the referenced RCWs are not provided; and how the exclusion from chapter 49.60 interacts with other anti-discrimination laws or enforcement mechanisms is not shown.

If passed, the bill will require the state’s interscholastic activities association or a similar nonprofit to write and enforce rules that can limit who may compete on girls’ teams based on physiological or hormone-related differences. That will create new responsibilities and likely new costs for the WIAA or any delegated nonprofit to draft rules, set up testing procedures called “age-appropriate sampling,” and enforce penalties; school boards that delegate must adopt and follow those rules and will need written policies, notice procedures, and appeal handling. Students could be excluded from girls’ events if deemed to have an unfair advantage, and coaches or administrators risk proportional penalties for violations. The groups most affected are the WIAA or any delegated nonprofit, local school boards and districts, coaches and school administrators, and students (including those with differences in endocrine characteristics). The bill also limits one avenue of discrimination claims by saying decisions under these rules are not violations of chapter 49.60, which may reduce certain legal risks for schools. Important details that would change how this works in practice are missing here—such as who qualifies as a “voluntary nonprofit,” what specific hormone tests or thresholds will be used, and the exact procedures for adopting and appealing rules—so costs, enforcement burdens, and how many students would be affected remain uncertain.