The U.S. Department of Education on Wednesday found the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation in violation of Title IX due to its policies allowing transgender students to play on girls’ sports teams. The finding comes after a relatively short 2 1/2-month investigation into the state department.
The federal Education Department said California was allowing "men to steal female athletes’ well-deserved accolades and to subject them to the indignity of unfair and unsafe competitions."
The California Interscholastic Federation — which governs high school sports in the state — changed its policies in May to allow more cisgender girls and women to compete in and take home gold in its track and field championship as a way to accommodate a transgender student who also competed and won first place alongside their cisgender peers.
“The California Department of Education believes all students should have the opportunity to learn and play at school, and we have consistently applied existing law in support of students’ rights to do so," said Liz Sanders, spokesperson for the California Department of Education, in an emailed statement to K-12 Dive responding to the federal department's findings.
If California does not sign onto the federal agency's proposed resolution agreement within 10 days, the Education Department will move to refer the case to the U.S. Department of Justice for enforcement, which under the second Trump administration’s policies comes with the threat of losing federal funds.
The resolution agreement would require the California Department of Education and its districts to adopt "biology-based definitions of the words 'male' and 'female.’"
In a similar Maine case that created the blueprint for directed, short Title IX investigations under the Trump administration, the department required the state to notify schools that “females” are defined by “a reproductive system with the biological function of producing eggs (ova),” and “males” by having “a reproductive system with the biological function of producing sperm.”
“Gender” was the same as “sex” under the proposed agreement, which Maine did not agree to at the time. That decision resulted in the case’s referral to the Justice Department and the threat of losing up to $864 million in federal funds.
The department's proposed resolution agreement for California also requires the state to withdraw records, titles and awards given to transgender students competing in girls' and women's sports, and to send cisgender girls "a personalized letter apologizing on behalf of the state of California for allowing her educational experience to be marred by sex discrimination."
The department originally announced its Title IX investigation into California in April as part of its broader effort to investigate states with transgender-inclusive policies. It is also investigating the state under the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act, which the administration is using to investigate educational institutions that prohibit school personnel from disclosing students’ LGBTQ+ status to their parents.
Earlier this month, after transgender athlete AB Hernandez’s win in California’s high school track and field championship, the federal Justice Department also sent letters to inform schools following CIF’s policy that they were “exposed to legal liability."
The Justice Department said CIF’s rules allowing transgender students to play on girls’ teams were “knowingly depriving female students of athletic opportunities and benefits on the basis of their sex.” The agency asked all California school districts to certify by June 9 that they are not following the policy.
However, by the June 9 deadline, California instead sued the Justice Department ”in anticipation of imminent legal retaliation against California’s school systems” after the state guided its districts to allow transgender students to play on sports teams aligning with their gender identities, against the federal government’s warnings.
California is the second state after Maine to publicly challenge the Trump administration's Title IX enforcement after a directed investigation. The Justice Department also said in April that it was looking into Minnesota's policies, alongside California's, and that "many, many" states would be next on the list.
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