Engrossed Senate Bill 5272 creates a new legislative findings section about school violence and the role of extracurricular athletics and amends state law to make it a gross misdemeanor to use force or violence to interfere with, or to intimidate by threat of force or violence, employees or contractors of public or private elementary or secondary schools, elementary or secondary students, and officials or volunteers acting as officials at extracurricular athletic activities while those people are peacefully performing duties or studies. The amendments add that such interference by a public school student is grounds for emergency removal under RCW 28A.600.015 and allow a public school to exclude a student who interferes during extracurricular athletic activities from participating in or attending that activity. The bill sets the criminal classification and penalties: a gross misdemeanor punishable by up to a $500 fine, up to six months in jail, or both. It also requires that, upon conviction, a person other than a student be excluded from entering the school where the crime was committed or from attending the extracurricular athletic activities in which the crime was committed for not less than 12 months and not more than 18 months. The bill states that “public school” has the same meaning as RCW 28A.150.010 and explicitly amends RCW 28A.635.090 and RCW 28A.635.100. The bill title refers to requiring schools to notify the public of these penalties, but the provided text does not include any operative provision describing how or when schools must notify the public. The text also does not show an effective date, the full prior statutory language, or explain the session labeling seen in the document. The bill passed the House on March 3, 2026, and passed the Senate on March 9, 2026.

If enacted, the law will make threatening or using force against K–12 employees, contractors, students, and people acting as athletic officials a criminal offense that schools and law enforcement are likely to treat more seriously, and it gives schools a clear basis to remove or bar people from campuses or extracurricular events for an extended period (non-students convicted must be kept out for about one to one-and-a-half years; students who interfere can be immediately removed and barred from activities). That should give athletic officials and volunteers stronger practical protection and prompt more incidents to result in criminal charges and formal school exclusions. Public and private elementary and secondary schools will be most affected: administrators will have added responsibilities to implement emergency removals, enforce multi-month exclusion orders, and coordinate with law enforcement and prosecutors, which could raise administrative and security costs. The bill’s title refers to a public notification requirement, but the provided text contains no details about how or when schools must notify the public, and no effective date is included, so the timing and procedures for any required notifications are unclear.