Two Virginia school districts — Fairfax County Public Schools and Arlington Public Schools — filed lawsuits against the U.S. Department of Education on Friday after the agency moved to freeze their federal funding, according to The Washington Post and local outlets.
Why It Matters
The lawsuits challenge the Trump administration’s rollback of LGBTQ+ protections in schools and universities nationwide.
In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order stating the federal government will only recognize two sexes: male and female.
The president, Education Secretary Linda McMahon, and other officials have argued that letting transgender women use women’s restrooms puts cisgender women at risk and that allowing them to compete in women’s sports is unfair.
However, there is no evidence that transgender women create safety risks in bathrooms. Research shows transgender people are far more likely to be victims of violent crimes than those who are not transgender.
What To Know
The Education Department has started the process of freezing funding for Fairfax and Arlington, saying their policies supporting transgender students’ access to bathrooms and locker rooms violate Title IX.
Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) is Virginia’s largest school district and the 11th largest in the country, with nearly 180,000 students in the 2022-2023 school year.
Previously, the Education Department demanded that Arlington, Fairfax, Alexandria, Loudoun, and Prince William counties end their gender-affirming policies. When the districts refused, the department announced it would move to “suspend or terminate” federal funding and label them “high-risk,” The Washington Post reported.
Fairfax argued in its lawsuit: “Nothing in the text of Title IX prohibits schools from allowing transgender students to access facilities that match their gender identity. To the contrary, several U.S. Courts of Appeals — including the Fourth Circuit — have held that Title IX requires schools to allow such access.”
These lawsuits follow a Thursday statement from the DOE saying that Denver Public Schools (DPS) violated Title IX by creating all-gender restrooms and letting students use facilities aligned with their gender identity.
The DOE began investigating after a Denver high school converted a girls’ restroom into an all-gender restroom but kept another restroom for boys only. A DPS spokesperson said the school still provides separate restrooms for male and female students.
At the time, Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, stated: “Let me be clear: it is a new day in America, and under President Trump, the Office for Civil Rights will not tolerate discrimination of any kind.”
Following Thursday’s finding, the DOE told Denver Public Schools to revert its all-gender restrooms to single-gender facilities or face additional enforcement actions.
What People Are Saying
- Education Secretary Linda McMahon, in an Aug. 19 statement: “States and school districts cannot openly violate federal law while simultaneously receiving federal funding with no additional scrutiny.”
- Arlington superintendent Francisco Durán, in response: “Students are punished when federal funding, primarily used to provide free breakfast and lunch for over 8,000 students or counseling and education for special needs students, is ripped away. We strongly disagree with the U.S. DOE’s assertion that our policy violates Title IX.”
What Happens Next
The Education Department’s legal fight with school districts that defy the Trump administration’s rules on gender-specific policies is set to continue.
