Education Department Poises to Pull Funding From Schools Over Transgender Athletes Policy

Education Department Poises to Pull Funding From Schools Over Transgender Athletes Policy
Secretary of Education Betsy Devos speaks during a White House briefing in Washington on March 27, 2020. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
Bill Pan
Bill Pan
Reporter
|Updated:

The U.S. Department of Education has sent warnings to Connecticut school systems, saying they will not receive an upcoming round of federal funding if they continue to allow transgender student-athletes to play on teams that match their identified gender.

A New York Times report confirmed the Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has informed three school districts that they may lose federal founding unless they disaffiliate with the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC), which administers high school sports in the state. The conference currently allows transgender students to compete on teams based on their choice of gender identity, a policy deemed by OCR to be in violation of Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in education.