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The Youngkin administration should explore creative tools to address leftist school district leaders’ violation of the law.
Last week, the United States Department of Education found five public school districts in Northern Virginia in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The department’s press release says these divisions — Alexandria City Public Schools, Arlington Public Schools, Fairfax County Public Schools, Loudoun County Public Schools, and Prince William Public Schools — are “subject of several lawsuits, informal complaints, and reports, which allege that students in the Divisions avoid using school restrooms whenever possible because of the schools’ policies.”
As the Department of Education summarized, these districts’ policies allowing “students to access intimate, sex-segregated facilities based on the students’ subjective ‘gender identity'” violate federal law. Leaders in districts like Fairfax have also mandated preferred pronouns that run contrary to students’ biological sex. Fairfax District leaders further require annual training for their teachers regarding these policies and focus on facilitating social gender transitions at school, as they often keep this information secret from parents, a FCPS teacher who requested anonymity told me.
The district required an annual teacher training for the 2025-2026 school year titled, “Gender Expansive and Transgender Students,” as I reported in IW Features. The obtained guidance states, “Prior to notification of any parent or guardian regarding the transition process, school staff should work closely with the student to assess the degree to which, if any, the parent or guardian will be involved in the process and must consider the health, well-being, and safety of the transitioning student.”
The Dangers of ‘Transgender Inclusive’ Policies
Such so-called “transgender inclusive” policies not only violate many families’ religious beliefs but also have had devastating consequences. In 2021, Appomattox County High School did not notify a then-14-year-old girl’s parents when she began identifying as a boy at school. As The Federalist previously reported, the school’s decision to exclude the teen’s mother from such critical information meant it “participated in a chain of events that led” to the girl becoming the victim of sex predators and being trafficked to another state.
Appomattox County is not one of the five Northern Virginia districts that the Department of Education mentions in its investigation. In other words, there likely are many other K-12 public school districts in Virginia that are violating federal law.
In its administrative complaint to the DOE’s Office of Civil Rights, which conducted the investigation, it’s clear why America First Legal would highlight Northern Virginia’s public school districts. Many of them have been the recent subject of national news. --->READ MORE HERE
The Department of Education announced Friday the conclusion of investigations into five Northern Virginia school districts, finding district policies accommodating transgender students violate federal law.
The department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) opened probes into the Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William County school districts in February following requests to do so from America First Legal, a conservative organization founded by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.
In letters to the OCR, the group alleged each school district had continued enforcing policies meant to support transgender students in violation of Title IX, the federal civil rights law against sex discrimination in schools. The policies vary by school district, but each allows trans students to use restrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity and requires their teachers and peers to address them by their chosen name and pronouns.
America First Legal said the policies provide “greater rights to students whose ‘gender identity’ does not match their biological sex than it does to students whose ‘gender identity’ matches their biological sex.”
In a news release on Friday, the OCR said its investigations determined the school districts’ policies violate Title IX, which the Trump administration has said broadly prohibits transgender girls from using girls facilities and participating on girls school sports teams. The OCR said it sent resolution agreements to each of the districts, which have until Aug. 4 to sign them or risk “imminent enforcement action,” including referral to the Department of Justice.
“Although this type of behavior was tolerated by the previous Administration, it’s time for Northern Virginia’s experiment with radical gender ideology and unlawful discrimination to come to an end,” said Craig Trainor, the Education Department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights. “OCR’s investigation definitively shows that these five Virginia school districts have been trampling on the rights of students in the service of an extreme political ideology.”
Prince William County Public Schools, in a statement posted on the district’s website, said it would “conduct a thorough review” of OCR’s proposal but remains “firmly committed to fostering a safe, inclusive, and respectful learning environment for all students and staff.”
A spokesperson for Alexandria City Public Schools told The Hill that the district is similarly reviewing the OCR agreement “with staff and legal counsel in order to assess the next steps.” Loudoun County Public Schools wrote in an email that it would review the findings of OCR’s investigation and “continue to ensure full compliance with state and federal laws.” --->READ MORE HERE
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