Boise, ID Public Conduct: Loitering Rules (2026)

Section 5-2-3(A) lists two separate disorderly-conduct offenses. The first, subsection (A)(1), bans occupying, lodging or sleeping in any private building, structure or place without permission from the owner or the person entitled to possession or control of it. The second, subsection (A)(2), is the school-grounds loitering offense: it is unlawful to loiter or remain in or about school grounds or buildings without having a reason or relationship tied to custody of, or responsibility for, a pupil or student, or to a school-authorized function, activity or use.

Either violation is a straight misdemeanor by the text of the section itself, and section 5-2-17 confirms that a violation of the wider chapter 2 (General Offenses) defaults to a misdemeanor unless a section states otherwise. Because chapter 5-2 does not carve out its own fine schedule, the applicable penalty is Boise City Code section 1-4-1: a fine of up to $1,000, up to six months in the Ada County Jail, or both. The section traces to the 1952 Code (section 6-01-05) and has been amended four times since: in 2014 when the chapter was reorganized, in February 2021, in June 2025 (Ord.

24-25), and again in December 2025 (Ord. 41-25), meaning the school-loitering language currently in force is the version the City Council most recently revised rather than the original 1952 wording. The offense sits in the same chapter as Boise's failure-to-disperse law (section 5-2-1), which lets police order a crowd to break up when its conduct creates a real risk of injury or blocks a public right-of-way, but section 5-2-3 does not require a dispersal order first: loitering on school property or trespassing in a private building is charged on its own.