§ 79-2,159. Model dress code and grooming policy; department; duties; health and safety standard; requirements.

(1) For purposes of this section: (a) Department means the State Department of Education; (b) National origin includes characteristics associated with actual or perceived place of birth, ancestry, or ethnicity including, but not limited to, skin color, natural and protective hairstyles, headdress, tribal regalia, and attire; (c) Natural and protective hairstyles include, but are not limited to, braids, locks, twists, tight coils or curls, cornrows, bantu knots, afros, weaves, wigs, or head wraps; (d) Race includes characteristics associated with actual or perceived race, ancestry, or ethnicity including, but not limited to, skin color, natural and protective hairstyles, tribal regalia, and attire; (e) Religious attire and characteristics associated with religion includes, but is not limited to, natural and protective hairstyles, tribal regalia, burkas, hijabs, head wraps, or other headdress, adornments, and clothing garments used to express or observe one's religious beliefs; and (f) Tribal regalia includes natural and protective hairstyles and traditional garments, jewelry, or other adornments or similar objects of cultural significance worn by members of an indigenous tribe of the United States or another country. Tribal regalia does not include any dangerous weapon or, except in compliance with an appropriate federal permit, any object that is otherwise prohibited by federal law. (2) On or before December 1, 2024, the department shall develop and distribute a model dress code and grooming policy for schools that facilitates and encourages an inclusive and positive learning environment while complying with any applicable health or safety law, rule, regulation, ordinance, or resolution. Such model policy shall not: (a) Target, disproportionately impact, discriminate, or be applied in a discriminatory manner against any students on the basis of race, religion, sex, disability, or national origin; (b) Prohibit a student from wearing attire, including religious attire, natural and protective hairstyles, adornments or other characteristics associated with race, national origin, or religion; or (c) Require a student's hair be permanently or temporarily altered. (3) Such model policy shall include a statement that specifies that enforcement of a violation of such policy shall be done in a manner that is consistent with a school's overall discipline plan and in a consistent manner. (4) The department may develop as part of the dress code and grooming policy a health and safety standard that allows for the regulation of characteristics associated with race, national origin, or religion in the dress code and grooming policy under certain circumstances. Such standard shall: (a) Demonstrate that without the implementation of such standard, it is reasonably certain that the health and safety of the student or another individual will be impaired; (b) Require adoption of the standard for nondiscriminatory reasons; (c) Require that the standard be applied equally; (d) Require that the school engage in a good-faith effort to reasonably accommodate the student and notify the student's parent or guardian, in a language that such parent or guardian understands, of such an attempt to accommodate the student's appearance or any attire, tribal regalia, hairstyles, adornment, or other characteristic associated with race, national origin, or religion; (e) Provide a process to obtain consent from a student's parent or guardian prior to altering a student's appearance or removing or altering a student's attire, tribal regalia, hairstyle, adornment, or other characteristic associated with race, national origin, or religion; and (f) Provide a process to ensure records are kept on each effort to reasonably accommodate a student's appearance, attire, hairstyle, adornment, or other characteristics associated with race, national origin, or religion occurring at school, on school grounds, or at a school-sponsored event and ensure that such records allow for analysis of related data and delineate: (i) The reason for such student's referral relating to the dress code and grooming policy; and (ii) Federally identified demographic characteristics of such student. History: Laws 2023, LB298, § 3.