The Department of Education announced Monday that its Office for Civil Rights has rescinded provisions of six resolution agreements previously reached with school districts and a college to address alleged Title IX violations involving transgender students.

The affected institutions include the Cape Henlopen School District in Delaware, the Delaware Valley School District in Pennsylvania, the Fife School District in Washington, the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District in California, the Sacramento City Unified School District in California, and Taft College in California. These agreements, negotiated under the Obama and Biden administrations, required schools to implement measures such as faculty training on preferred pronouns and accommodations for gender identity to comply with federal civil rights law.

Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey stated that the action removes "unnecessary and unlawful burdens" imposed by prior administrations in pursuit of a "radical transgender agenda." "While previous Administrations launched Title IX investigations based on ‘misgendering,’ the Trump Administration is investigating allegations of girls and women being injured by men on their sports team or feeling violated by men in their intimate spaces," she said.

The department argued that the agreements distorted Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded education programs based on biological sex, not gender identity. It noted that a federal court invalidated the Biden administration's 2024 Title IX rule expanding protections to gender identity in January 2025, prompting a return to the Trump administration's 2020 regulations.

This marks the first known instance of the federal government terminating previously negotiated civil rights resolution agreements with schools previously. The move frees the institutions from ongoing federal monitoring and enforcement of those specific terms.

Representatives from some districts responded cautiously. Sacramento City Unified School District affirmed its commitment to supporting LGBTQ+ students and staff despite the termination. Officials at La Mesa-Spring Valley School District, which was on spring break, indicated that the district had already implemented the agreement regarding a gender nonconforming elementary student and anticipated no immediate effects.

The decision aligns with broader Trump administration efforts to enforce Title IX based on biological sex. The department has initiated at least 40 civil rights investigations into schools and universities over transgender policies, filed lawsuits against California and Minnesota over state rules allowing transgender students in sports matching their gender identity, and threatened to withhold federal funding from non-compliant institutions. As of now, 27 states have enacted restrictions on transgender athletes' participation in school sports.