Rep. Jesse Kremer, R-Kewaskum, and Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, are proposing to require school boards to designate bathrooms and locker rooms as being for one gender exclusively, and to require the state Department of Justice to defend school districts in lawsuits alleging the policy is discriminatory.

“This bill reinforces the societal norm in our schools that students born biologically male must not be allowed to enter facilities designated for biological females and vice versa,” Kremer wrote in a memo sent Tuesday to lawmakers seeking co-sponsorship.

The bill defines gender as being “the physical condition of being male or female, as determined by an individual’s chromosomes and identified at birth by that individual’s anatomy,” according to an analysis of the bill from the Legislative Reference Bureau.

Kremer said in an interview Tuesday that the bill seeks to provide “safety” and “privacy” to students using these rooms.

As an example, Kremer said safety fears could arise when female students entering a bathroom are followed by someone and they don’t know if that person is a transgender student or someone who is “up to no good.”

Under the bill, a student who identifies as a gender that is not their biological gender may request special accommodations. Parents may also file a written complaint if they feel their student’s privacy is being violated because of transgender students’ use of a school’s bathroom or locker room. A school district then has 30 days to “investigate and attempt to resolve the complaint.”

If the complaining parents are not satisfied with the school district’s resolution, they may file a lawsuit against the district seeking money or other kinds of damages that are undefined in the bill.

When asked if a parent could ask that a transgender student be expelled, Kremer said it would be up to the school board to decide.

Dan Rossmiller, lobbyist for the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, said that provision in the bill is concerning because the standard of being “satisfied” is unclear.

“We have concerns about districts being sued and the expense of defending those kinds of things and what the range of remedies are,” he added.

Kremer said the bill’s impetus came from a situation in the Kewaskum School District in which a student who was born female but identified as male was repeatedly using a school bathroom for boys.

He said the situation illustrated the need for a statewide policy regarding transgender students’ use of bathrooms and locker rooms.

But that policy could put the state in conflict with a federal policy regarding student discrimination known as Title IX. In 2014, the Office of Civil Rights within the U.S. Department of Education said this law covered discrimination on the basis of sexual identity.

In June, the U.S. Department of Justice sided with a transgender student from Virginia who said his school’s policy of requiring him to use alternative facilities instead of communal bathrooms violated his rights, and that he should be allowed to use the bathroom assigned to the gender he identified with as a matter of mental health.

“That singling out results in isolation and exclusion and perpetuates a sense that the student is not ‘worthy of equal treatment and respect.’ Granting transgender students access to restrooms consistent with their gender identity will serve the public interest by ensuring that the District treats all students within its bounds with respect and dignity,” according to the department.

Sheri Swokowski, a transgender woman who is a board member of LGBT advocacy group Fair Wisconsin and lives in DeForest, said she understands anxiety and apprehension that arises in situations where transgender students are using communal spaces with others.

“And that’s really due to a lack of education and awareness of what transgender means,” she said. “When you have a transgender female going into and using female restrooms and locker rooms — there may be male anatomy, but frankly they are female.”

Swokowski, 65, said transgender students often receive diagnoses confirming their gender identity is different than the one assigned at birth, “and sometimes it’s difficult for someone to understand that.”

School districts across Wisconsin have adopted policies in recent years addressing transgender students’ use of bathrooms or locker rooms and which sports teams the students may join.

Last year, the Janesville School District adopted a policy allowing transgender students to use the bathroom and locker room assigned to the gender with which they identify if parents and principals gave the OK.

In the Madison School District, transgender students are to have access to the restrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their gender identity, if that is their choice. The district’s policy states that if a staff member or classmate objects, the district will make other accommodations for the person who complained.

In the Middleton-Cross Plains School District, each school has at least one “gender-neutral” restroom, or the ability to convert a restroom into one, according to Jerry Nicholson, the district’s director of student services.

“It has always been the district’s goal to make all of our students feel comfortable and accepted. We recognize this is a sensitive topic,” said district spokesman Perry Hibner.

“A law from the state that directs districts about what must be done without discriminating or harassing certain students would be welcomed by our students and staff.”