Transgender students from kindergarten through college at Ohio public and private schools will be banned from using multiperson bathrooms that fit their gender identities under a measure that Republican Gov. Mike DeWine signed earlier this week.

Local and regional school and university officials Wednesday shared their thoughts and positions on the bill and how they will handle it on their campuses.

DeWine signed the Republican-backed measure — labeled the “Protect All Students Act” — out of public view Tuesday over the objections of Democrats, teachers’ unions and civil rights groups, which had hoped that his objections to a ban on gender-affirming care for minors last year would result in another veto. The bill takes effect in 90 days.

The governor issued no statement regarding the signing.

The law requires public and private schools, colleges and universities to designate separate bathrooms, locker rooms and overnight accommodations “for the exclusive use” of either males and females, based on one’s gender assigned at or near birth, in school buildings and other facilities used for school-sponsored events. It contains no enforcement mechanism.

Youngstown State University and Kent State University issued brief statements on Wednesday.

Kent State stated that it is reviewing the language but as a public institution, it is bound to follow state law.

YSU’s statement was similar: “We are aware of SB104 that was signed on Nov. 26 and are reviewing the bill to determine steps needed to be in compliance with all requirements as a state institution.”

Superintendents at local school districts were largely supportive of the law.

“We strongly recommend that kids use the restroom appropriate to the sex they were assigned at birth,” Austintown Superintendent Tim Kelty said.

Kelty said he is aware that trans students may need help and some special accommodations, but the district has not been faced with any such circumstances.

“I think we’re doing a pretty good job of making sure kids are safe,” he said. “I’ve been in Austintown a long time, if (a student’s concern) needs to get to a building administrator, it does.”

Poland schools Superintendent Craig Hockenberry said the law simplifies things in some ways but could make for at least temporary complications in others.

“I’m sure certain districts will have some more issues with it than Poland, I think it just resets to where it always has been,” he said. “The one problem we have to be very careful with is that this is state law, but federal law requires the opposite. We have to look at it as well from that perspective, that If we follow the state law, we could violate the federal law.”

Hockenberry said that, like Austintown, Poland does not deal with the issue of transgender students very often, if at all, but the district is not insensitive to students who need help or special accommodations.

“Obviously, we’ll make accommodations for people that need accommodations, but it makes it easier to monitor, takes a lot of confusion out and eliminates a lot of room for kids that are trying to make a mockery out of it, like having a teenage boy going into a girl’s restroom as a joke,” he said.

“We have very few. Out of 824 students in Poland, I’d say probably less than five (transgender students), and for the most part it has not been a major issue here,” he said. “Poland has no intention of making anybody feel uncomfortable or harming anybody in any way. If kids are struggling with gender identities, there’s still an opportunity for them, but we’ll handle that on a case by case basis. We’ll work with the board and legal counsel. We were alerted several months ago to be thinking this through, and we have been.”

In Weathersfield, Superintendent Damon Dohar said at least one of the district’s two buildings helps to simplify such concerns. Mineral Ridge High School is designed with male and female bathrooms in a central location, with two nongendered staff bathrooms on either side.

“Some students have access to it currently, because of health issues not gender issues,” he said. “So, that probably would be the solution as it would have been before the passing of this bill.”

Like Hockenberry, Dohar said he is curious to see how districts navigate the shaky ground between state and federal law, although he agreed the federal laws are likely to change once Republican President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.

“I’m curious to see how this will coincide with the federal regulations,” he said. “I expect we’ll get some guidance here in about a month. We normally do. It seems like we’re fine either way. We prepare for these things. Experience has taught me to let the process run its way through.

We will follow the law, as prescribed to us, the best that we can.”