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Jeffco Public Schools is suing the Trump administration in an effort to prevent the U.S. Department of Education from withholding roughly $50 million in federal funding.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Colorado, is the latest step in a dispute between the state’s second largest school district and the Education Department over policies related to transgender students.
The Office for Civil Rights said the district’s policies on transgender sports participation and overnight field trip accommodations violate Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in education. Numerous other school districts have faced similar investigations.
Under the Trump administration, civil rights enforcement has focused on a few political priorities, including undoing protections for transgender students, while other cases have languished.
In its lawsuit, Jeffco Public Schools alleges that the Education Department changed longstanding interpretations of Title IX without going through an appropriate rule-making process, a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, and that the way the department handled the investigation reflects an “arbitrary and capricious” approach that violates the district’s rights.
The lawsuit alleges that the administration has demanded that Jeffco Public Schools violate the state’s anti-discrimination laws based on an interpretation of Title IX that hasn’t been tested in the courts. A recent Supreme Court decision found that states may pass sports policies that block transgender students from joining sports teams that match their gender identity, but it did not require that they do so. The decision explicitly left the issue up to states and school districts, at least for now.
The lawsuit further alleges that the Education Department’s demands violate the First Amendment. One of the corrective actions required by the Office for Civil Rights was that the district issue a public statement adopting the Trump administration’s definition of sex and agreeing with its interpretation of Title IX.
The Education Department did not respond to a request for comment late Tuesday.
In an open letter to the community, interim Superintendent Rob Stein acknowledged that the lawsuit comes as the district faces serious budget problems and involves contentious issues. He said the Office for Civil Rights had placed the district in an “impossible position,” and the lawsuit would provide clarity about what it means to follow the law.
“The federal funding at issue helps support important programs and services that benefit students across our district, including many of our most vulnerable learners,” he wrote. “Protecting these resources is one of our responsibilities as a school district.”
Chalkbeat reporting found that OCR’s investigation into Jeffco was based on a limited review of documents rather than on in-depth interviews, an approach that represents a departure from past practices. The Education Department accused the district of having up to 61 boys on the rosters of girls’ sports teams, while the district says those names belonged to trainers, managers, and mascots. The department also issued a letter of impasse threatening enforcement action even before a 90-day window for negotiating an agreement had expired.
Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.
