The U.S. Departments of Education and Justice released a joint letter today confirming that discriminating against transgender students is illegal under Title IX.
The eight-page letter outlines how the departments “evaluate a school’s compliance with these obligations.” Noncompliance puts federal funding at risk.
Since at least 2001, the departments of Education and Justice have consistently interpreted Title IX as a protection from sex-based discrimination that includes transgender students. Friday’s letter reaffirmed that interpretation in the wake of state laws like North Carolina’s HB2, according to Dorie Nolt, spokesperson for Education, who added multiple school leaders and organizations had recently asked for further clarity on Title IX. The recent letter also added specific examples of how schools can handle the needs of their transgender students, Nolt told PGN.
“This guidance gives administrators, teachers and parents the tools they need to protect transgender students from peer harassment and to identify and address unjust school policies,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement. “I look forward to continuing our work with the Department of Education — and with schools across the country — to create classroom environments that are safe, nurturing, and inclusive for all of our young people.”
The letter explains the requirements for things like:
- Using names and pronouns consistent with a student’s gender identity regardless of previous school records
- Allowing transgender students to join appropriate sex-segregated programs and activities like single-sex classes, schools, sports teams, restrooms, locker rooms, social fraternities and sororities, and housing and overnight accommodations among other things
- Privacy of education records, including following the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act to disclose transgender status only to appropriate personnel, and prohibiting schools from designating sex or transgender status in a school directory
The National Center for Transgender Equality noted that Education and Justice’s interpretation of Title IX overrides state laws like the one in North Carolina that requires people to use the restroom according to the sex on their birth certificates.
“We’ve seen over and over that transgender students who are included and respected can thrive at school,” Mara Keisling, a Harrisburg native who now serves as executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, said in a statement. “But this year, some legislators and anti-trans extremists have been encouraging schools to deny transgender students basic educational opportunities by preying on baseless fears and cooking up confusion about what federal law requires. That’s why transgender young people, their families and their schools have so desperately needed this guidance from the federal government.”