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The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) found that Denver Public Schools (the District) violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) and its implementing regulations. OCR concluded that the District’s conversion of sex-separated multi-stall restrooms to ‘all-gender’ facilities and its policies contained in the “Denver Public Schools LGBTQ+ Toolkit,” which allow students to use intimate facilities corresponding to their “gender identity” rather than biological sex, violate Title IX’s prohibition against sex discrimination.
Initiated on January 28, this was the first Title IX directed investigation undertaken by the Trump Administration’s OCR.
“Denver Public Schools violated Title IX and its implementing regulations by converting a sex-segregated restroom designated for girls in East High School to an ‘all-gender’ facility and by allowing students to use the high school’s intimate facilities on the basis of their ‘gender identity’ rather than their biological sex. As a result, the District is creating a hostile environment for its students by endangering their safety, privacy, and dignity while denying them access to equal educational activities and opportunities,” said Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor. “Denver is free to endorse a self-defeating gender ideology, but it is not free to accept federal taxpayer funds and harm its students in violation of Title IX. The Trump Administration will work relentlessly to hold accountable school districts that harbor the ideological fanatics and policies that sully students’ educational experience with sex discrimination.”
As a result of the noncompliance finding, OCR has issued a proposed Resolution Agreement to the District to resolve its Title IX violations. OCR has offered the District an opportunity to voluntarily agree within 10 days or risk imminent enforcement action.
The Department’s proposed Resolution Agreement would require the District to take the following actions:
- Convert and redesignate all multi-stall restrooms for use by both sexes in any District school back to sex-designated multi-stall restrooms;
- Rescind any policies or guidance which allow students to access intimate facilities based on ‘gender identity,’ not biological sex (including components of the “Denver Public Schools LGBTQ+ Toolkit”);
- Issue a memorandum to all District schools reiterating that schools must provide intimate facilities that protect the privacy, dignity, and safety of its students and are comparably accessible to each sex, and that Title IX compliance ensures female students may not be discriminated against in any education program or activity; and
- Adopt biology-based definitions for the words “male” and “female” in all policies and practices related to Title IX.
Background
On January 28, OCR initiated an investigation into Denver Public Schools for allegedly violating Title IX and its implementing regulations by converting a female restroom into an all-gender restroom in its largest high school.
OCR found that in December 2024, East High School converted a second-floor multi-stall restroom designated for girls into a restroom for use by both sexes. As a result, male students had access to a restroom designated exclusively for males on the floor but female students did not. OCR determined the District violated Title IX’s prohibition on sex discrimination by placing the burden only on females to seek an exclusive restroom elsewhere, thereby denying their right to equal educational facilities and opportunities.
The District sought to rectify its different treatment of female students by converting the boys’ restroom on the second floor into an “all gender” restroom, but this does not remedy its violation of Title IX because males are still allowed to invade sensitive female-only facilities. The school received several complaints, including from a female student who reported that when her friend used the restroom, “boys kept staring at her, looking her up and down, kind of taunting her.” The student further shared that she was “very uncomfortable” with boys “being together in the same bathroom as [girls],” stating “our privacy and our rights has [sic] just been taken away.” Multiple students and parents expressed concerns about sexual assault and privacy in their complaints, and one complainant shared that “the female students are very uncomfortable with a male teacher going in frequently [to the restroom] to check on things…it should be a female teacher.”
Although the District maintained it does not have a policy regarding the assignment of restrooms based on sex, OCR found a District online document linked to multiple school websites, the “Denver Public Schools LGBTQ+ Toolkit,” which stated that “transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming students have the right to use facilities…that match their gender as consistently expressed at school.” These policies violate Title IX by allowing males to invade sensitive female-only spaces (and vice versa).
Title IX and its implementing regulations prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex in educational programs or activities receiving federal funding.
