Trump administration undoes civil rights settlements that found discrimination against trans students

The Trump administration is systematically unwinding a series of federal civil rights agreements that found schools had discriminated against transgender students, reversing years of enforcement and forcing districts into a legal and financial bind, according to reporting by The New York Times.

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The Education Department has begun terminating or rewriting settlements negotiated through its Office for Civil Rights, agreements that required schools to treat discrimination based on gender identity as a Title IX violation. Those settlements from previous administrations followed formal federal findings that students had been denied equal access to education because of their gender identity.

One of the clearest examples is the Delaware Valley School District in Pennsylvania. A federal investigation into the district in 2015 concluded that officials had failed to adequately respond to sex-based discrimination against a transgender student. Investigators found the district's policies did not sufficiently address gender-based harassment and required it to revise them to explicitly include protections for gender identity.

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The resulting agreement from 2016 defined gender-based discrimination as including bias tied to gender identity, gender expression, and transgender status, and required the district to ensure equal access to programs, activities, and facilities, along with staff training and systemic policy changes.

At the time, federal officials were unambiguous about the law's reach. In correspondence to the district, the Office for Civil Rights wrote that "Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs and activities operated by recipients of Federal financial assistance," and required the district to adopt policies addressing gender-based discrimination.

That position has now been reversed.

In a February 25 letter to the district, the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights said it was ending federal oversight and unwinding the case. The letter, signed by Regional Director Bradley Burke, stated that "OCR hereby terminates the Resolution Agreement … and any obligations thereunder" and that "OCR is closing its monitoring" of the matter, directing the district to roll back the policies it had adopted under the settlement.

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The move is part of a broader campaign. The Times reports that the administration has rescinded, in whole or in part, multiple settlements in California, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Washington. The effort follows an executive order directing federal agencies to recognize only sex assigned at birth and reflects a wider push to strip diversity, equity, and inclusion policies from public education.

The rollback comes as research continues to show transgender and LGBTQ+ students face persistent hostility in schools. Data from Glisten’s recently released 2025 National School Climate Survey found widespread harassment and discrimination among LGBTQ+ and particularly trans students, while federal data shows about 40 percent of transgender young people report being bullied at school and far higher rates of depression and safety concerns than their peers.

The consequences of the Education Department’s policy reversal have been immediate. In Delaware Valley, the school board voted unanimously to remove gender identity and gender expression as protected categories in its discrimination policy as community members walked out of the meeting yelling "cowards" and "shame," Radio Catskill reported. Officials warned the district could lose federal funding if it did not comply with the administration's directive, even as Pennsylvania state law continues to protect transgender students from discrimination.

With federal enforcement shifting sharply in one direction, many states and school systems remain bound by laws that recognize gender identity as a protected category.