Today, the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) formally rescinded the Biden Administration’s illegal regulation implementing Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX). Today’s action officially reinstates the first Trump Administration’s 2020 Title IX rule in the Code of Federal Regulations, providing clear guidance for parents, students, and educational institutions on the legal requirements of Title IX.
Since the first days of the Administration, President Trump and Secretary McMahon have abided by the original promise and purpose of Title IX: to protect women’s safety, dignity, and educational opportunities in schools that receive federal funding. Just 11 days into President Trump’s second term, following two federal courts unequivocally invalidating the Biden Administration’s 2024 rule, the Department announced it would enforce the 2020 Title IX regulations.
The Biden Administration’s illegal regulations were enjoined by eight different courts and later vacated by two separate courts. After years of legal challenges to the Biden Administration’s rule, federal courts dismissed all remaining litigation concerning the Biden-era regulations last month. This cleared the way for the Trump Administration to issue today’s final regulation restoring the previous regulatory text.
“Today’s rulemaking clears the Biden Administration’s illegal rewrite of Title IX from the Code of Federal Regulations and restores the commonsense language promulgated in the first Trump Administration, which we have been enforcing since the first days of the Administration,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “Thanks to today’s action, the published Title IX regulations faithfully reflects court orders and Congressional intent—reducing confusion for parents, students, and educational institutions. We will continue to relentlessly champion equal opportunity for all Americans and hold accountable any school or college that violates the rights, privacy, or athletic opportunities of our women and girls.”
More information on today’s final rule can be found here.
Background:
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. This includes female students’ rights to single sex bathrooms and locker rooms, and competitive athletic competition restricted to biological female athletes.
The Biden Administration’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) pushed schools across the country to illegally allow males to intrude into women’s sports and intimate facilities, and it investigated school staff for using incorrect pronouns or failing to ask students to declare a preferred gender. The Trump Administration has rescinded these agreements.
Over the past nineteen 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 its original meaning and 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-separated 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.