The US education department said on Monday it had terminated agreements that previous administrations reached with five school districts and a college aimed at upholding rights and protections for transgender students.
The decision means the department will no longer play a role in enforcing those agreements, which called for schools to take steps to comply with federal civil rights law. The districts affected are Cape Henlopen school district in Delaware, Fife school district in Washington; Delaware Valley school district in Pennsylvania; and La Mesa-Spring Valley school district, Sacramento City Unified and Taft College in California.
Under the Biden and Obama administrations, the department interpreted Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education, to include protections for transgender and gay students.
The Trump administration has penalized schools that have made efforts to accommodate students based on their gender identity. It has filed lawsuits in California and Minnesota over state policies permitting transgender students to participate in interscholastic sports, and opened civil rights investigations into schools and universities over their policies on transgender students.
But the announcement on Monday appeared to involve the first known cases of the administration terminating civil rights settlements that had been negotiated with schools.
Al Goldberg, a Sacramento City Unified spokesperson, told the Sacramento Bee it’s still unclear what the effects of Monday’s decision would be on the district’s policies or funding.
“The Sacramento City Unified School District remains committed to the support of our LGBTQ+ students and staff,” he said.
Kimberly Richey, assistant secretary for civil rights at the education department, said the action reflected the administration’s efforts to keep transgender students from participating in girls’ and women’s sports teams and accessing shared locker rooms.
“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,” she said in a written statement.
