Today, the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) announced that it is again recognizing June as ‘Title IX Month’ in honor of the fifty-fourth anniversary of the Educational Amendments of 1972 (Title IX), signed into law on June 23, 1972. The Department commemorates women’s struggle for, and achievement of, equal educational opportunity and, throughout the month, will highlight the Trump Administration’s historic progress in restoring Title IX’s sex-based protections.
As part of its Title IX Month initiatives, the Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) opened an investigation into Cabarrus County Schools (the District) in North Carolina based on reports that the District violates Title IX by allowing males in girls-only intimate facilities.
Multiple female students have reported being required to dress and undress in the presence of males and that the District ignored, ridiculed, and dismissed their pleas for protection. One student recounted that her former principal said that “there isn’t anything [the District] can do” to protect female students and that girls “can go somewhere else” if they feel uncomfortable.
“Throughout the month of June, we’re spotlighting the critical civil rights protections that women fought for decades to secure and the Trump Administration’s vigorous commitment to protecting Title IX’s promise for current and future generations of women and girls,” said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey. “Today’s investigation demonstrates that the Trump Administration will not stop pursuing Districts that reportedly subject our women and girls to egregious violations of their privacy and safety. Under the Trump Administration, no woman or girl will have to fight alone to secure her basic protections, and we will not relent until Title IX is restored to the fullest extent of the law.”
Background
The Biden Administration distorted Title IX’s sex-based protections contrary to their meaning to allow males to compete in women’s sports and occupy women’s intimate facilities based on self-professed ‘gender identity,’ not biological sex. Over the past sixteen months, the Trump Administration has taken historic action to reverse the Biden Administration’s immeasurable harm to women and girls by restoring Title IX to the letter of the law and to its original intent, protecting the women and girls.
- Returning Enforcement to Biological Reality: Within its first two weeks of being in office, the Department returned to enforcing the first Trump Administration’s 2020 Title IX rule, reversing the Biden Administration’s illegal 2024 re-write. This once again aligns Title IX’s sex-based protections with biological reality, not ideological fantasy.
- Securing Resolution Agreements with Higher Education Institutions: The Department signed resolution agreements, including with the University of Pennsylvania and Wagner College, which obligated them to re-establish sex-segregated sports and intimate facilities, restore to females their titles misappropriated by male athletes, and apologize to female athletes for their prior policies allowing sex discrimination.
- Creating Title IX Special Investigations Team: The Department partnered with the U.S. Department of Justice to create the Title IX Special Investigations Team (Title IX SIT) consisting of expert attorneys and investigators to ensure consistent investigations and expeditious enforcement for Title IX violations. The Title IX SIT has probed the California Department of Education, California Interscholastic Federation, Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Minnesota Department of Education, and Minnesota State High School League.
- Initiating Investigations: The Department has launched a significant volume of Title IX investigations – including into the California Community College Athletic Association, The New Richmond School, and Western Carolina University – amid allegations that they allow men to compete in women’s sports and/or occupy female-only intimate spaces. The Department has investigated entities including the Los Angeles Unified School District and Puyallup School District for reportedly failing to respond appropriately to allegations of sexual assault and harassment.
- Taking Enforcement Action: The Department has taken enforcement action when entities have refused to remediate their Title IX violations.
- The Department initiated a termination proceeding for Maine Department of Education’s (MDOE’s) federal K-12 education funding and referring the MDOE case to the Department of Justice.
- The Department placed five Northern Virginia School Districts on reimbursement status for all Department funds totaling over $50 million and designated them as “high-risk” status within the federal grants system for their continued refusal to follow Title IX. This is to ensure that the Districts are expending federal funds consistent with federal law.
- The Department referred the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) and Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL), and the California Department of Education (CDE) and the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), to DOJ for enforcement after these entities refused resolution agreements following findings of Title IX violations.
Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.