The U.S. Department of Education has notified (FCPS) that it cannot certify their Magnet School grant applications “as they are in violation of federal civil rights laws, including Title IX.”
Specifically, the U.S. Department of Education takes issue with that allows students to use the bathroom and locker room of their choice at school based on their chosen gender identity.
“Title IX’s commitment to sex-separated intimate facilities is based on immutable biological differences, well-established privacy interests, and ensuring the safety of all students when in enclosed and vulnerable spaces,” Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor wrote to Fairfax County Superintendent Michelle Reid. “This is not only permissible and advisable but often necessary to ensure equal opportunities for girls and women and prevent a hostile educational environment. When recipients of Federal funding require schools to treat “trans-identifying” males as if they were “females,” including in intimate traditionally sex-separate facilities, they defeat the very purpose of Title IX: to ensure equal opportunities for women while not jeopardizing their privacy, safety, or other rights.”
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FCPS’s Magnet School is Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.
The U.S. Department of Education is giving FCPS and two other school districts three days to come into compliance with civil rights laws and continue receiving Magnet School funding.
To come into compliance with federal law, the Department of Education is ordering FCPS to rescind the policies and/or regulations that allow students to access intimate facilities based on their “gender identity” rather than their sex, issue a memorandum to each Division school explaining that any future policies related to access to intimate facilities must be consistent with Title IX by separating students strictly on the basis of sex, and that Title IX ensures women’s equal opportunity in any education program or activity including athletic programs, adopt biology-based definitions of the words “male” and “female” in all practices and policies relating to Title IX.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education said the Magnet School Assistance Program provides discretionary grants to local education agencies that operate magnet schools and promote desegregation to “increase interaction among students of different social, economic, ethnic, and racial backgrounds.” To receive funding, the Department’s Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights must sign an assurance that the applicant “will not engage in discrimination” and abides by federal civil rights laws.
“Simply put, allowing males in girls’ intimate facilities or private spaces violates Title IX by creating a hostile educational environment or denying females equal access to benefits of education programs or activities,” Trainor told Reid. “The same can be said when female students are permitted to enter private spaces reserved for male students.”
A department spokesperson said their Office for Civil Rights has identified “appalling issues” with the City of Chicago Board of Education and Chicago Public Schools; Fairfax County Public Schools; and the New York City Department of Education and New York City Public Schools, and it cannot certify their applications as such.
The department said $3.4 million is at stake for the next year for Fairfax County Public Schools and approximately $13.7 million for the remaining duration of the grants.
7News is seeking comment from FCPS on this latest development.
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Last month, FCPS and Arlington Public Schools sued the U.S. Department of Education to try to stop the department from freezing federal funding to the school districts, but from Fairfax County and Arlington Public Schools to stop the Department of Education from freezing federal funding after it vowed to do so over their bathroom and locker room policies.
On Tuesday, Reid announced to families in a letter that FCPS filed an appeal with the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and this week filed an Emergency Motion for Injunction Pending Appeal with the Fourth Circuit.
“The DOE’s demands would force FCPS to either break that law and discriminate against our students or face the loss of up to $167 million in federal funding,” claimed Reid.