The Trump administration notified school districts in New York City, Chicago and Fairfax County, Va. on Tuesday that it is prepared to withhold more than $67 million in federal funding for magnet schools over potential civil rights violations.
Education Department Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor warned New York City Public Schools Chairperson Gregory Faulkner; Chicago Board of Education President Sean Harden; and Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid that if their school districts don’t come into to compliance with federal law by Friday, the Trump administration will not certify their multi-million dollar magnet school grant applications.
The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights is “deeply concerned about NYC DOE’s Guidelines to Support Transgender and Gender Expansive Students … the text of which authorizes discrimination on the basis of sex in violation of Title IX,” Trainor wrote In a letter to New York City Public Schools officials, obtained by The Post.
The guidelines, according to the Trump administration official, state that “[t]ransgender and expansive students must be provided access to facilities (restrooms, locker rooms, or changing rooms) consistent with their gender identity asserted at school” and demand that Big Apple schools provide “students who are gender fluid” with restroom and locker room access that “affirms their identity.”
The guidelines also permit students to play for sports teams or participate in activities “in accordance with the student’s gender identity asserted at school,” including “overnight field trips.”
“As a result, students are expected to bunk with a member of the opposite sex if an opposite-sex student asserts that he or she identifies as the same gender,” Trainor argues. This cannot be right.”
Trainor also suggests New York Public Schools’ policy “means that male students who identify as female or transgender are given unqualified access to female intimate spaces.”
“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,” the Education Department official continued.
Adding: “The consequences of the NYC DOE’s policy are predictable: students are subject to hostile educational environments or denied equal access to benefits of education programs or activities or will be in the future.”
Trainor asked New York’s DOE to amend the guidelines to rescind any policies that violate Title IX or risk losing federal funding.
About $15 million in funding for New York City Community School Districts is at stake for next year, and approximately $36 million for the remaining duration of the grants, according to the Education Department.
Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid received a similar letter from Trainor threatening to cut off some $3.4 million in magnet school grants next year, and approximately $13.7 million in total, over a regulation mandating that “[g]ender-expansive and transgender students shall be provided with the option of using a locker room or restroom consistent with the student’s gender Identity.”
The regulation, 2603.2, violates Title IX, according to Trainor.
He noted that Fairfax County Public Schools previously informed the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights “that it was sued prior to the 2024-2025 school year by students alleging that Regulation 2603.2 violated their free speech, free exercise, due process, and equal protection rights because it required students to share a restroom with someone who is trans-identifying or, alternatively, use single-use restrooms.”
“In that lawsuit … one of the students ‘avoided using school restrooms and only did so when absolutely necessary’ because of Regulation 2603.2’s permissive mandate,” Trainor wrote, demanding that the school district rescind the regulation.
Meanwhile, Chicago Public Schools officials, including Board of Education President Sean Harden, were accused by the Trump administration of promoting “textbook racial discrimination” over an academic-achievement initiative aimed at providing remedial resources “only to black students.”
At issue is Chicago’s “Black Students Success Plan,” which Trainor described as “racially exclusionary,” in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
The Black Students Success Plan, according to Trainor, “is designed for and exclusive to black students and black educators.”
“It is not, for instance, available to white or Asian American students and educators. This is textbook racial discrimination, and no justification proffered by CPS can overcome the patent illegality of its racially exclusionary plan,” he added.
Chicago Public Schools officials were asked to “abolish the Black Students Success Plan,” and also come into compliance with Title IX by rescinding policies allowing transgender students access intimate facilities and to participate in school sports corresponding with their gender identity.
About $5.8 million in funding for next year and roughly $17.5 million in total grants are at stake for Chicago, according to the Education Department.
All three school districts have until 5 p.m. Friday to notify the Trump administration of the steps they will take to come into compliance or they risk losing federal grants for magnet schools.
The school districts did not immediately respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
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