In opposition to North Carolina’s transgender bathroom law, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools recently passed a regulation that would allow transgender students to use the bathroom and locker room of their choice, according to Monday reports.

Principals received the new CMS regulation on Monday, which stated that starting in August, teachers and fellow classmates will call students by the noun and pronoun of their choice. And students who identify as transgender will be allowed to use the bathroom and locker room of whichever gender they identify with.

“This is about courage, understanding and compassion,” Superintendent Ann Clark told the Charlotte Observer. “These are our children. These are the community’s children.”

North Carolina passed a law in March requiring students to use the bathroom of their biological sex.

Both Clark and George Battle III, the attorney for CMS, say the regulation is not meant to defy North Carolina’s law on bathrooms, but to follow federal court rulings on the subject. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va stated in April that transgender students should be allowed to use whatever bathroom matches their gender identity.

Clark told the Charlotte Observer that school board members had been working on the regulation for more than a year, but members were unsure how to proceed, because of the debates over the “bathroom bill.”

The regulation’s goal, according to Clark, is to make sure that all students feel safe. Teachers will have class rosters that reflect the gender identity of students, although students’ official transcripts will have their name and gender according to their birth certificates. Eventually, practices like having students line up in boy’s and girl’s line for lunch or recess will be eliminated.

“This is about listening to our students, first and foremost,” Clark said to the Charlotte Observer.

Though Clark said that there is no way to count the number of students who identify as transgender, people estimate that about .3 percent of the population identifies as transgender, which would put the number in the district at 400, according to the Charlotte Observer.

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