The federal authorities is pushing 5 Northern Virginia college districts to ban transgender college students from utilizing the bogs and locker rooms that correspond to their gender id. The US Division of Training’s Workplace for Civil Rights (OCR) introduced that it believes the districts’ insurance policies “violate the sex-based protections of Title IX,” a federal civil rights legislation that prohibits intercourse primarily based discrimination in teaching programs.
Within the press launch, the OCR referred to as on the districts to voluntarily adjust to its coverage change suggestions often called a “decision settlement” inside the subsequent ten days. These agreements would name on districts to undertake “biology-based definitions of the phrases female and male” and apply them to all of their Title IX insurance policies. It additionally instructs them to rescind any insurance policies that enable college students to entry “intimate amenities” that don’t correspond to their organic intercourse.
The 5 districts embrace: Alexandria Metropolis Public Faculties, Arlington Public Faculties, Fairfax County Public Faculties, Loudoun County Public Faculties, and Prince William County Public Faculties. When Washingtonian reached out to every district to ask whether or not they deliberate modifications to their insurance policies, the districts all acknowledged they’re within the strategy of reviewing the company’s findings.
If the districts don’t voluntarily comply, the federal authorities has a lot of levers to coerce compliance, says Julia Martin, an legal professional and the director of coverage and authorities affairs on the Bruman Group, a legislation agency devoted to training grants legal guidelines.
“OCR’s purpose is voluntary compliance, and has been that method for a very long time,” she says. “Traditionally, a lot of the instances will lead to voluntary decision as a result of there’s a risk of shedding entry to funds.” When college districts obtain federal funding, Martin explains, they signal an settlement with the federal authorities the place they pledge to comply with all relevant civil rights legal guidelines together with Title IX.
“What step one often is for an entity that doesn’t voluntarily adjust to any program is a risk to withhold after which in the end the withholding of administrative funds,” Martin says. From there, Martin says, the federal authorities can escalate by withholding programmatic funding. After that, different businesses may droop funding—for instance, the USDA threatened to freeze funding in Maine over the state’s insurance policies on transgender student-athletes.
Within the case of those 5 districts, federal funding doesn’t essentially make up the majority of their annual income, however it does present vital funding for choose applications significantly people who help low earnings college students and college students with disabilities. For instance, out of Arlington Public Faculties’ $844.6 million greenback finances for the 2026 fiscal yr round $23 million comes from federal sources, however this cash accounts for 57% of the district’s funding for varsity lunches and breakfasts.
The final step is prison prosecution below the False Claims Act, in line with Martin. Principally, this legislation says it’s unlawful to make a declare for cash from the US Treasury below false pretenses. That means if a faculty district receives federal funding below the situation it’ll comply with federal civil rights legal guidelines after which proceeds to violate these legal guidelines the DOJ might prosecute the district.
College districts do need to knowingly violate the legislation as a way to be discovered liable below the False Claims act, in line with Martin. “You probably have an entity like a district which says we’re complying with federal civil rights legal guidelines as we perceive them, we now have recommendation from our attorneys that claims that our interpretation is appropriate or not less than viable or might be justified below legislation,” Martin says. “That could be a legitimate protection in opposition to false claims act legal responsibility.”
However the legislation additionally presents monetary danger to a district as a result of a violation can contain triple damages. “If a district will get $100 million and is present in violation of the False Claims Act. The federal authorities can get that $100 million again, plus an additional $200 million as a penalty,” Martin explains. “I perceive that that’s the large risk that they’ve launched on this administration.”
What’s important on this case is that the districts can argue they’re in compliance with federal civil rights legal guidelines as a result of whereas Title IX would possibly prohibit discrimination primarily based on intercourse, it doesn’t outline what “intercourse” means, Martin famous.
Beneath President Biden, the Division of Training used this ambiguity to outline intercourse expansively to incorporate issues like gender id, intercourse traits, and gender presentation. President Trump’s administration has chosen a way more slim definition of the time period and has used this definition to allege states like Maine have violated federal legal guidelines.
However a giant distinction between these 5 districts and Maine is that not like in that case, the place the state sued the Trump administration, Governor Glenn Youngkin is in alignment with OCR. In 2022 his administration launched statewide pointers that mentioned college students ought to use college amenities in line with the intercourse they’re assigned at delivery. That means, now if these 5 college districts are going to attraction the OCR’s findings or take the company to court docket over their federal funding, they’ll doubtless need to go it alone.
“These college divisions have been violating federal legislation, intentionally neglecting their duty to guard college students’ security, privateness and dignity, and ignoring dad and mom’ rights,” Youngkin mentioned in a press release praising the OCR’s latest press launch. “They received away with this habits as a result of the Biden Administration backed them up. Commonsense is again, with organic girls and boys in their very own locker rooms and bogs, and boys out of women sports activities.”
Martin predicts that the college districts will rigorously assess their choices within the coming days specifically as a result of they’ll’t depend on any type of state funding ought to their federal funding be withheld. “I’m positive that the legal professionals in these college districts are very busy making an attempt to evaluate what their danger is; the monetary danger goes to be a significant consideration for these districts,” she says. “As is the truth that the state doesn’t have their again on this.”
Correction: A earlier model of this story listed the Arlington Public Faculties finances for fiscal yr 2026 as $823.6 million. This was the finances for fiscal yr 2025, not fiscal yr 2026.
