By Becky PielĚý

Restrooms may not be the first spaces that come to mind when planning new school construction or renovations, but they leave one of the most lasting impressions. For students, teachers, staff and visitors alike, restroom conditions shape how users perceive the overall quality, safety management and care of a school environment.Ěý

Bradley Company’s 2025 , now in its 16th year, reveals that restroom quality strongly influences public perception:Ěý

• 84% of Americans say a dirty or poorly stocked restroom damages their impression of a facility.Ěý

• 75% would think twice before returning after a bad experience.Ěý

• 71% are more likely to return when restrooms are clean and well-maintained.Ěý

Unfortunately, schools ranked near the bottom of this year’s survey, alongside gas stations and drug stores. This finding underscores a major opportunity for school leaders: by improving restroom design and maintenance, districts can positively affect health, public image and community trust.Ěý

Health and Hygiene Take Center StageĚý

Post-pandemic, school design has evolved to reflect greater attention to hygiene. Handwashing habits, once overlooked, are now recognized as critical to preventing illness and absenteeism. The 2025 survey found that 80% of American adults wash their hands more frequently or thoroughly in response to seasonal virus outbreaks — a sharp increase from 45% in 2009.Ěý

When it comes to children, however, parents remain skeptical: only 25% believe their kids always wash when told. Many parents admit to doing the same as children — nearly 60% confessed they once “cheated” by just running the water when told to wash.Ěý

These behaviors have inspired architects and planners to create restrooms that make handwashing easier and more engaging. Touchless faucets, soap dispensers and hand dryers reduce germ transmission, while bright lighting, visible supplies and well-organized handwashing stations promote cleanliness.Ěý

Restroom design now reflects a broader understanding of health — not just supporting hygiene but encouraging positive habits. By providing clean, touch-free and welcoming spaces, schools send a clear message that student wellness is a top priority.Ěý

Designing for Durability and Maintenance EfficiencyĚý

From elementary schools to college campuses, maintenance teams face a shared challenge: keeping high-traffic restrooms clean and operational with limited staff and budgets. Durable materials, vandal-resistant fixtures, and easy-to-maintain surfaces make a measurable difference in both longevity and operating costs.Ěý

Designers increasingly specify seamless, nonporous lavatory decks made from sustainable materials such as solid surface or natural quartz, many of which are GREENGUARD-certified. Cast as one piece, these fixtures minimize crevices where dirt and bacteria collect. They’re also easy to clean and repair and built to last. Multi-user handwashing systems simplify plumbing and shorten installation time.Ěý

Innovative top-fill and multi-feed soap systems further improve efficiency by allowing several dispensers to be refilled from one central hub — no crawling under counters or opening each unit individually. This saves maintenance time and keeps restrooms running smoothly, particularly in busy school environments.Ěý

Ventilation and odor-control systems also play key roles in maintaining air quality and user satisfaction — two of the strongest drivers of positive restroom experiences identified in the Healthy Handwashing Survey.Ěý

Touchless Technology: Easy to Use and MaintainĚý

Touchless fixtures — from faucets and flush valves to soap and towel dispensers — minimize contact points and simplify cleaning. With sensors integrated into the fixtures, there’s less opportunity for tampering or mechanical breakdowns. Nearly 80% of survey respondents now consider touchless fixtures essential rather than optional.Ěý

All-in-one handwashing systems that combine touch-free soap, water and drying improve both hygiene and traffic flow, while reducing water mess on countertops and floors. This integration supports both user comfort and maintenance efficiency, providing an optimal balance between function and cleanliness.Ěý

Inclusive Design for All Ages and AbilitiesĚý

Inclusivity has become another key design priority. Administrators are adopting layouts that balance privacy, safety and accessibility for all users. In many new schools, gender-neutral restrooms with fully enclosed stalls and shared handwashing areas are becoming common. These configurations enhance privacy, reduce wait times and improve overall user comfort.Ěý

Fixtures designed for vandal resistance — including tamper-proof fasteners, reinforced partitions and shatter-resistant mirrors — help maintain long-term appearance and function. High-quality privacy partitions made from phenolic materials resist moisture, bacteria and graffiti, while full-height enclosures and thoughtful layouts improve inclusivity and security.Ěý

Accessibility remains essential. Adjustable-height changing tables, ADA-compliant fixtures and generous turning space ensure restrooms accommodate students with physical disabilities or additional care needs.Ěý

Integrating universal design early in the planning process helps avoid expensive retrofits later and ensures every student — from preschool to higher education — has access to safe, comfortable and dignified facilities. Inclusive restrooms also foster empathy and respect among students, reinforcing core school values.ĚýĚý

Sustainability and Long-Term ValueĚý

Beyond hygiene and accessibility, sustainability is now central to school design. Low-flow plumbing fixtures, sensor-activated soap dispensers, and energy-efficient hand dryers help conserve resources and reduce waste.Ěý

Material choices also matter. Recycled materials and surfaces, low-VOC finishes and corrosion-resistant metals contribute to healthier indoor environments and lower maintenance needs. Many of these materials are certified for sustainability and indoor air quality, aligning with or programs.Ěý

Products that last longer and use fewer resources support both environmental goals and long-term budget efficiency. Sustainable restrooms also provide visible proof of a school’s commitment to responsible design and future generations.Ěý

The Restroom as a Reflection of School CultureĚý

For all the practical benefits of effective restroom design — from hygiene to cost savings — there’s also a human story behind it. Students and parents interpret restroom conditions as reflections of how much the school cares. Clean, modern restrooms convey pride and respect; neglected ones suggest indifference and even mismanagement.Ěý

Restrooms may occupy a small footprint in a school’s master plan, but their influence reaches far beyond the walls. When they’re clean, accessible and thoughtfully designed, they embody a school’s values: care, respect and commitment to student well-being.Ěý

Becky Piel is National Business Development Manager – Education for Bradley Company.Ěý

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Intersex Awareness Day (Oct. 26), marks another occasion to assess where schools stand (or sit — bah-dum-tss!) on the restroom issue. Essentially, the positions the nation’s schools take mimic the checkered tile floors of many of their restrooms — black and white, which looks grey at a distance.

Enacted in January 2016 was the , which, among other directives, provides  comprehensive sexual health education and HIV/AIDS prevention education to students, including discussions about and to intersex and transgender students. To clarify, the Intersex Day defines intersex as “those born with sex characteristics that don’t meet medical and social norms for female or male bodies,” and transgender pertains to a person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond with their birth sex.

This state-level awareness of the needs of nonbinary people aligns with the state’s recent passage of a law that allows for a third gender option on state drivers’ licenses and birth certificates, so people can identify as nonbinary or neither conventionally male or female.

Following upon California’s position, the U.S. Department of Education, then serving under President Obama in April 2016, encouraged the nation’s school districts to allow access to restrooms that best suit the gender to which a student identifies. Later, President Trump’s appointee, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, decided against the idea of a national mandate and instead left restroom policy-making at the individual district level. As a consequence, a divisive climate of debate has seeped into what’s intended to be one of the few private places in public school.

Meanwhile, in Reno, Nev., all new elementary and middle schools in the Washoe County School District will be built with gender-neutral bathrooms, according to a , where installing gender-neutral bathrooms in middle schools is said to be $500,000. Likewise, some Illinois schools, specifically those in the Evanston/Skokie School District 65, will provide transgender-friendly bathrooms, reported the . Ditto New York City Schools. The namesake high school of Detroit Lakes, Minn., will also implement a gender neutral bathroom policy thanks to the efforts of 17-year-old Jayelin Block, reported 

Not all local districts are embracing gender neutral restrooms on their campuses. Such is the case in Iowa, for example, where conservative Christian groups have taken umbrage with permitting transgender students to use the bathroom that reflects their stated gender identity. This disconnect is presently an issue at Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, Iowa, where student activist and high school senior Zoey Wagner has been pushing for a more nuanced appreciation of the needs of transgender and nonbinary identifying students.

“Every high school has to have one private bathroom that would work for this,” Wagner told the . “It might not be as central as Roosevelt’s, but wherever it is, we have to make it open to students who don’t want to use gendered bathrooms.”

Though federal-level cohesion regarding gender neutral restrooms is unlikely in the near term, the debate remains part of a greater national dialogue, even when it’s only being realized between local school districts, students and their respective communities.

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For decades, the school restroom was mythologized in popular culture as an ersatz meeting place or den of low-end inequity — consider the Fonz entreating his male interlocutors to “step into my office” or Mötley Crüe’s cover of “Smokin’ in the Boy’s Room.” These days, the school restroom is also terra incognita when it comes to challenges facing transgender students and the socio-political debate that surrounds them.

The issue became particularly divisive in April 2016 when, under President Barack Obama, the Department of Education pressed a handful of contentious school districts to permit transgender students the use of bathrooms of the gender with which they identify. In February of this year, President Donald Trump’s appointees, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, revoked the previous administration’s guidance, which leaves the needs of transgender students in the hands of school districts.

“Most students who identify as transgender have to use the restroom in the nurse’s office or a faculty bathroom. Most schools don’t have the infrastructure or budget to add additional bathrooms,” said Andrea Bazemore, creator of “The Black Apple,” a podcast for educators committed to bringing social justice practices in their classrooms.

Currently, when transgender students face intolerance in regard to using restrooms of their stated gender, the students either have to seek out a rare unisex restroom or find alternative arrangements within the school.

“The problem happens when you have staff that don’t approve of the student’s gender identity and won’t allow a student to use the restroom due to them being transgender. Many students’ fears about bathroom issues include adults’ attitudes toward them,” Bazemore added.

There are an estimated 150,000 transgender students across the nation, according to a report published in February by the Williams Institute at the University of California Los Angeles School of Law. Among them is Drew Adams, a transgender high school junior at Allen D. Nease High School in Ponte Vedra, Fla., who was prohibited from using the boys’ bathrooms after someone made an anonymous complaint.

His mother, Erica Kasper, filed a complaint on his behalf with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights after a resolution could not be reached with the local school officials. The complaint was nullified when the Trump administration rescinded the Obama-era guidelines, so in June, Adams sued school officials and the St. Johns County School Board. The suit was filed with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, and alleges a violation of Title IX, a federal law that bars sex discrimination in public schools.

Adams’ suit is just one of a throng of cases being pursued across the country. The nation’s leading civil rights organizations released a letter on July 18, 2017, that contends that schools must allow students access to restrooms aligned with their stated gender identity lest they willfully violate federal law and the Constitution. Moreover, suits like Adams’, if successful, could result in hefty settlements.

To allay these possibilities and forthrightly address the needs of their students — no matter their gender identity — some schools are opting to take measures today rather than tomorrow.

Yonkers, N.Y.-based ASI Group, a 50-year-old manufacturer of washroom accessories, partitions and lockers has seen an uptick in school orders for what it terms “ultimate privacy partitions.” These are partitions that are lower to the floor and higher to the ceiling than conventional restroom partitions. A European-style partition, essentially a small room that encloses the facilities, has also proven popular.

“We are also getting more and more requests by school districts for [these partitions] even though there isn’t legislation in place in most, if any, places,” said Cyrus Boatwalla, head of global marketing at ASI Group. “School districts are recognizing that it may come down the pike or they want to be more proactive in that area.”

Another means of navigating real-world needs of school restrooms comes from the virtual world. Concept3D, a digital mapping company with offices in Colorado and Minnesota, created the CampusBird, an interactive map and virtual tour platform. When implemented by a learning institution and used on a mobile device, it enables transgender students and others to find gender-neutral bathrooms (and a bevy of other resources) without risking the confrontation that might result when asking a stranger.

“It’s a way to put those resources at the fingertips of students when they need them,” said Concept3D Marketing Manager Samantha Slater.

Colleges across the nation, including Colorado State University, Harvey Mudd College and the University of California, Irvine, among others, have embraced the platform to help students find everything from meditation and lactation spaces to gender-neutral bathrooms.

“If it’s not something you face everyday, you may not know how to answer. Also, a stranger may not react in a great way or simply may not know where every gender-neutral bathroom is on campus,” said Slater.

Of course, these solutions cost money —Ěýa resource often in short supply to cash-strapped public schools. Boatwalla, however, thinks the human cost of not implementing such measures should also be considered.

Read the entire article in the of ÍřĆŘłÔąĎ.

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