Education Dept. Scraps Some Civil Rights Agreements

The Trump administration said Monday that it was rescinding several resolution agreements the government had previously reached with colleges and K–12 school districts to end civil rights investigations.

The six agreements mentioned in the Education Department’s news release concern the rights of transgender students. Officials said portions of the agreements are being rescinded but didn’t offer more specifics.

“Previous administrations distorted the law contrary to its plain meaning to police discrimination on the basis of ‘gender identity,’ not sex, and imposed resolution agreements with no legal foundation, but rather, based on an ideologically-driven interpretation of Title IX,” the release stated.

The move is unprecedented, a former Education Department official told The New York Times. One advocacy group condemned the agency’s decision, calling it “unimaginably cruel” and an “escalation of [the administration’s] anti-trans agenda.”

“Title IX exists to ensure that students are protected from discrimination and treated with dignity so that they can learn and thrive in our schools,” said Shiwali Patel, senior director of education justice at the National Women’s Law Center, in a statement. “It’s always been about that. It’s what students, families, lawmakers and advocates fought for when Title IX was passed decades ago. But the Trump administration’s Department of Education has spent its limited resources to strip Title IX of that very purpose.”

The department plans to stop monitoring and enforcing agreements reached with Cape Henlopen School District, Delaware Valley School District, Fife School District, La Mesa–Spring Valley School District, Sacramento City Unified and Taft College, a California community college.

The Office for Civil Rights found in October 2023 that Taft wasn’t in compliance with Title IX after investigating a student’s complaint. Among other allegations, the student—a transgender woman who transitioned during her first semester—accused Taft employees of discriminating against her by using her previous male name and pronouns for more than a year until she graduated. (Taft’s nondiscrimination policy specifically barred discrimination based on gender identity.)

To end the investigation, the college agreed to update its Title IX resources and issue guidance to employees about “how the refusal to use a person’s preferred name and pronouns or repeated misuse of them may constitute harassment based on sex.” The agreement also required Taft to report Title IX complaints to OCR and reimburse the student up to $5,000 for counseling.

The college didn’t respond to Inside Higher Ed’s request for comment, but interim president Leslie Minor told the Times that the case was closed and no further action was required.