Five Northern Virginia school districts are at risk of losing their federal funding after declining to comply with the Trump administration’s request to rescind policies supportive of transgender students, the Education Department announced on Tuesday.
The department’s Office for Civil Rights opened probes into the Arlington, Alexandria City, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William County school districts in February following requests to do so from America First Legal, the conservative nonprofit founded by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.
In a February letter to Craig Trainor, the Education Department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, America First Legal senior advisor Ian D. Prior alleged the districts were enforcing policies meant to support transgender students in violation of Title IX, the federal civil rights law against sex discrimination in schools.
The policies vary by district, but each allows transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity and requires their teachers and peers to address them by their chosen name and pronouns. Prior wrote in the letter that the policies provide “greater rights to students whose ‘gender identity’ does not match their biological sex than it does to students whose ‘gender identity’ matches their biological sex.”
The Education Department announced the conclusion of its investigations on July 25, finding that the school districts’ policies conflicted with Title IX, which the Trump administration has said broadly prohibits transgender students from using the restroom or playing on sports teams that match their gender identity.
The districts had until Aug. 15 to sign resolution agreements with the Trump administration requiring them to rescind the policies and adopt “biology-based” definitions of the words “male” and “female” in policies and practices related to Title IX or risk “imminent enforcement action,” including from the Justice Department.
On Tuesday, the Education Department said each of the school districts had refused to sign the agreement and, consequently, it was "commencing administrative proceedings seeking suspension or termination of federal financial assistance.”
“Additionally, to ensure that grantees expend federal funds consistent with federal law, the Department is placing these Divisions on reimbursement status for all Department funds including formula funding, discretionary grants, and impact aid grants, totaling over $50 million,” the department said in a news release. “The Divisions will now be required to pay their education expenses up front and then request reimbursement for expenditures to access funds obligated by the Department.”
The Education Department said it also would classify each of the five school districts as “high-risk” within the federal grant system to indicate that they “have failed to uphold the conditions of their federal grant agreements by violating federal law.”
“States and school districts cannot openly violate federal law while simultaneously receiving federal funding with no additional scrutiny,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement.
Northern Virginia school divisions, the statement said, are "choosing to abide by woke gender ideology in place of federal law" and "must now prove they are using every single federal dollar for a legal purpose.”
The school districts have each maintained that their policies are consistent with state and federal regulations and said they would not sign the Trump administration’s proposed agreement.
In a statement to The Hill, a spokesperson for Loudoun County Public Schools said the district reviewed the Education Department’s Tuesday press release and “disputes that we have engaged in activity that would warrant being characterized as a ‘high-risk’ grantee.”
The school district is considering its next steps and “will continue to expend federal funds consistent with federal law,” said the spokesperson, Dan Adams.
Diana Gulotta, a spokesperson for Prince William County Public Schools, said the district had not yet received any official notice from the Trump administration. A response from the Education Department sent via email was later “recalled,” she said, “and at this time we have not received any follow up.”
Spokespeople for Alexandria City, Arlington and Fairfax County Public Schools did not immediately return a request for comment.
Source: The Hill - News