Schools are being allowed to choose whether their toilet facilities will be gender neutral under new construction and refurbishment guidelines.
An updated school design guide from the Department of Education says most toilet facilities in future will include self-contained cubicles with their own doors and communal access to sinks.
This was one of the measures included in the LGBTI+ Youth Strategy that was published in 2018, following extensive consultations.
Moninne Griffith is CEO of BeLonGTo and told Newstalk Breakfast it is about choice.
"I think it's a really positive step, and I think that trans and non-binary students - and their friends and their parents - are going to be feeling very positive about this and hopeful.
"Schools can be a very scary and unwelcoming place for trans and non-binary students, and I think this is a really positive step."
Amid concerns parents may have about privacy, particularly for girls, she said it is about choice.
"It's about choice and it's about making sure that there's the option of segregated and gender neutral bathrooms.
"So I think for any parents that are worried about that just go back to the source and read the facts.
"Schools will consult with parents, they'll consult with students - and also bathrooms, sometimes, can be quite a contested space anyway for students where some bullying goes on.
"So schools are smart - they don't live in never-never land - they do risk assessments, they do consultations with parents, all that stuff will happen."
'Mixture of segregated and non-segregated'
And she said she believes such concerns are being "blown up beyond what it really is".
"I can understand that fear, but what I'm saying to parents is you don't need to have that fear.
"Go and talk to your principals, talk to your schools if this is a fear. Schools won't be just putting these bathrooms up overnight.
"And when you're thinking about the number of trans young people who die by suicide, or who are self-harming every year, I think it's a small accommodation that we as parents can make to make sure that all our children feel safe and welcome in schools".
She added that schools can have a mixture of both.
"It's about choice: schools will have probably a mixture of both segregated and non-segregated [toilets].
"And also out in the wide world, we have bathrooms that are mixed gender all the time.
"I think it'll be like loads of things: it'll be like plastic bags, it'll be like smoking bans - people will get used to it when they know that it's for the greater good".
