The Trump administration has notified public schools at every level that it will not be enforcing the Biden administration’s revised interpretation of Title IX, which included the protection of LGBTQ+ students from discrimination. 

In June 2022, President Joe Biden’s Education Secretary Miguel Cardona announced that Title IX, the 1972 education law that prohibits discrimination in federally funded schools “on the basis of sex,” should rely on the Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County. That court decision found that Title VII’s ban on sex-based workplace discrimination includes discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The notice repealing this interpretation referred to Donald Trump’s executive order on “restoring biological truth,” which declared, “It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female.  These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”

The letter – sent from the United States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights – states that the order is “fatal” to the Biden interpretation of Title IX because it “directly contradicts the vacated rule’s novel and expansive meaning of ‘on the basis of sex.”‘ It then emphasized executive power: “As a constitutional matter, the President’s interpretation of the law governs because he alone controls and supervises subordinate officers who exercise discretionary executive power on his behalf.” 

It also justified the order based on a January 9, 2025, Kentucky District Court decision that ruled Biden’s interpretation of Title IX is unenforceable, claiming “expanding the meaning of ‘on the basis of sex’ to include ‘gender identity’ turns Title IX on its head.” 

The notice also aligns with another Trump executive order seeking to endtransgender-inclusive policies and anti-racist education in K-12 schools. The order calls to cut off federal funding to trans-inclusive and anti-racist schools, to force schools to out trans students to their potentially unsupportive parents, and accuses supportive teachers of “sexually exploiting minors” or “unlawfully practicing medicine.” 

The Trump administration also declared in the letter that it will return to policies from Trump’s first term that provided stronger rights to students accused of sexual assault or harassment and limited schools’ liability in those cases. 

“This is an incredibly disappointing decision that will leave many survivors of sexual violence, LGBTQ+ students, and pregnant and parenting students without the accommodations critical to their ability to learn and attend class safely,” Emma Grasso Levine, a senior manager at Know Your IX, said in a statement. “Schools must step up to protect students in the absence of adequate federal guidance.”

Department of Education employees themselves have also become victims of Trump’s war on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). According to NBC News, dozens who attended a diversity training course that was encouraged by the Trump administration during the president’s first term have been placed on paid leave.