The Trump administration is ending civil rights settlements that aimed to protect transgender students from discrimination, the Education Department announced Monday, the latest effort by the agency to solidify its view that federal law barring sex discrimination does not extend to discrimination based on gender identity.
The agency is rescinding agreements with Taft College, a California community college, and five local school districts across the country, calling the settlements illegal.
Administrations often interpret civil rights law differently. The Biden administration required schools to respect transgender student rights, whereas the Trump administration says the law does not extend to gender identity. It also argues that some efforts to aid trans students violate the rights of others, such as giving trans girls and women access to women’s facilities and sports teams.
But it is highly unusual for the Education Department to rescind an agreement reached under a prior administration. Trump officials also did so last year when the agency terminated an agreement with a South Dakota school district that had been accused of discriminating against Native American students in disciplinary actions. That agreement, the Education Department said, violated civil rights law because it included requirements related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
In the past, administrations prioritized new cases, not relitigating old ones.
The original agreements were based on investigations of compliance with Title IX, the federal law that bars sex discrimination.
Past administrations “distorted the law” by investigating allegations of discrimination rooted in “gender identity” rather than biological sex, the Education Department said in a news release.
“Today, the Trump Administration is removing the unnecessary and unlawful burdens that prior Administrations imposed on schools in its relentless pursuit of a radical transgender agenda,” Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said in the news release.
The agency said it would no longer enforce agreements reached with Taft; Cape Henlopen School District in Delaware; Delaware Valley School District in Pennsylvania; the Fife School District in Washington; and La Mesa-Spring Valley School District and Sacramento City Unified School District, both in California.
The Trump administration has also opened a number of civil rights investigations into schools for allowing biological males who identify as female to participate in girls’ or women’s sports or use women’s locker rooms.
On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order stating that the United States recognizes only two sexes and directing all federal agencies to use the term “sex,” not “gender.”
Transgender rights advocates said they see the rescinded settlements as another example of the administration seeking to harm the trans community.
“This isn’t a restoration of ‘common sense.’ It is bullying, harassment, and exclusion,” said Sydney Duncan, interim director of litigation at Advocates for Trans Equity, an advocacy group. “What’s at stake is far bigger than any one district. The Department of Education is sending a signal that your kid’s safety, dignity, and access to education are optional if they happen to be trans.”
The agreement with Taft College, reached in 2023, was prompted by a student who had enrolled in college as a man but later identified as a transgender woman. The investigation looked into whether school officials referred to her by “incorrect name and pronouns” and referred to transgender and nonbinary people “in a derogatory manner” in front of her. It also looked at whether the college failed to respond promptly and effectively to this alleged harassment based on sex.
The agreement reached with the college required Taft to revise its policies and procedures regarding harassment to clarify that repeatedly refusing the use a student’s preferred name and pronouns may constitute harassment based on sex, creating a hostile environment under Title IX.
Leslie Minor, interim superintendent/president of Taft College, said in a statement that the matter had already been settled. “The referenced case was fully investigated and resolved in 2023 with Taft College in full compliance with OCR regulations, and no further action is required.”
The agreement with Delaware Valley School District dates back to 2015, during the Obama administration. It required the district to hire a consultant on discrimination against transgender youth, to revise its policies to specifically include discrimination based on gender identity as a form of sex discrimination, and to conduct annual training of staff on this issue and the district’s obligations under the agreement, among other changes.
In a letter sent in February, the Office for Civil Rights told the superintendent that the agency would no longer monitor or enforce the terms of the agreement because the district’s alleged actions “did not state a violation of Title IX.”
The Southeastern Legal Foundation, a conservative advocacy group, had written to the Education Department in November urging the government to take action.
In Sacramento, school officials pledged to continue to protect trans students in the wake of the Education Department’s decision. The district “remains committed to the support of our LGBTQ+ students and staff,” schools spokesman Brian Heap said in an email. Heap did not say whether the district planned to continue to abide by the terms of the rescinded pact.
The other school districts impacted by the decisions announced Monday did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
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