US Limits Settlements Over Rights of Transgender Students
The Trump administration has moved to end a series of agreements that had supported transgender students, reversing commitments earlier administrations made with several school districts.
The Trump administration has moved to end a series of agreements that had supported transgender students, reversing commitments earlier administrations made with several school districts.
The US Education Department said it was scrapping six resolution agreements that, in its view, were reached through what it described as the manipulation of Title IX.
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Title IX, the federal civil-rights law, prohibits schools from denying benefits or engaging in discrimination in education “on the basis of sex.”
Since returning to office, Donald Trump has stepped up pressure on schools and universities through executive orders and warnings that federal funding could be withheld over issues including transgender rights, climate programmes, diversity initiatives and pro-Palestinian protests over Israel’s war in Gaza.
The department said its Office for Civil Rights would stop monitoring or enforcing agreements involving the Sacramento City Unified 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, the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District in California and Taft College in California.
The Sacramento City Unified School District said it remained “committed to the support of our LGBTQ+ students and staff.”
The La Mesa-Spring Valley School District said it was on spring break and did not expect the Education Department’s action to have any effect.
The district added that the resolution agreement had already been carried out and said that, based on its understanding, the matter involved a gender non-conforming student at an elementary school.
The Education Department did not provide further details about the terminations, which the New York Times first reported.
According to the newspaper, the civil-rights settlements were designed to protect transgender students’ right to equal educational opportunity.
“…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,” Education Department official Kimberly Richey said.
Mr Trump’s broader push against transgender rights has drawn condemnation from LGBT groups and human-rights advocates.