The Trump administration has terminated multiple civil rights settlements previously negotiated with school districts and a college, ending federal enforcement of protections aimed at transgender students and forcing schools to navigate potential conflicts between federal guidance and state laws.
The move, announced by the U.S. Department of Education on Monday, affects agreements with five school districts and one college. These resolution agreements, reached under prior administrations, required measures such as faculty training on using students’ preferred names and pronouns, and allowing transgender students to use bathrooms and facilities aligning with their gender identity.
Education Department officials stated that the decision aligns with President Trump’s order recognizing only sex assigned at birth. They described the changes as protecting students and restoring “common sense” in the interpretation of Title IX, the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in education. The department emphasized that it will no longer monitor or enforce the terminated agreements.
The policy shift requires school districts to choose between following the new federal guidance or adhering to state laws that may conflict on issues of gender identity in schools.
Advocates for transgender rights have criticized the action, arguing that it jeopardizes the safety and well-being of transgender students by removing important safeguards against discrimination.
The terminated agreements involved the Sacramento City Unified School District and the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District in California, the Cape Henlopen School District in Delaware, the Fife School District in Washington state, the Delaware Valley School District in Pennsylvania, and Taft College in California. One district, Delaware Valley, had already begun rolling back its own anti-discrimination protections following earlier notice of the change.
This development marks what officials described as an unprecedented step by the federal government in terminating previously negotiated civil rights settlements with schools.
