Education - As introduced, establishes that a public institution of education may provide an opportunity or benefit exclusively to one sex through a program if the institution provides a substantially similar or reasonably comparable opportunity or benefit to the opposite sex through a different program. - Amends TCA Title 49.

SB 1696 allows Tennessee public schools to offer programs exclusively to one sex (e.g., single-gender sports teams or clubs) if they also provide a substantially similar alternative program for the other sex. The bill amends education law to clarify that such arrangements do not violate anti-discrimination rules, as long as the alternative program is reasonably comparable. This directly affects all Tennessee public institutions of higher education and K-12 schools that operate separate programs based on sex. The policy change enables schools to maintain single-sex initiatives while still complying with broader equality requirements through separate but equivalent offerings.