Education Department opened 18 Title IX investigations into schools and colleges across 10 states over transgender-athlete policies

On January 14, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) initiated Title IX investigations into 18 educational entities across ten states, one day after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. B.P.J., cases testing whether state laws barring transgender athletes from women's and girls' sports violate equal protection. OCR said the entities, ranging from K-12 districts to colleges to one state education department, maintain policies or practices that "discriminate on the basis of sex by permitting students to participate in sports based on their 'gender identity,' not biological sex." The 18 entities named were: in California, Jurupa School District, Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District, Santa Monica College, and Santa Rosa Junior College; Waterbury Public Schools in Connecticut; the Hawaii State Department of Education; in Maine, Regional School Unit 19 and Regional School Unit 57; Foxborough Public Schools in Massachusetts; the University of Nevada, Reno; in New York, the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District and the New York City Department of Education; Great Valley School District in Pennsylvania; Champlain Valley School District in Vermont; and in Washington, Cheney Public Schools, Sultan School District No. 311, Tacoma Public Schools, and Vancouver Public Schools.

Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said the investigations came "in the same week that the Supreme Court hears oral arguments on the future of Title IX," and that OCR was "aggressively pursuing allegations of discrimination against women and girls by entities which reportedly allow males to compete in women's sports." She added that "the Trump Administration has made its position clear: violations of women's rights, dignity, and fairness are unacceptable," and pledged the department would "leave no stone unturned in these investigations." Several of the named districts and institutions told reporters they had just been notified and would cooperate with OCR's inquiry.

Title IX, enacted in 1972, prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded education programs; prior federal guidance interpreted it to protect transgender students, an interpretation the current administration has reversed. Because a Title IX violation finding can result in termination of federal funding, opening investigations into 18 entities simultaneously — spanning K-12 districts, two- and four-year colleges, and a state education department in ten states — applies broad, coordinated financial and legal pressure to reshape school and university gender-identity policy through enforcement rather than legislation or a court ruling on the pending Supreme Court cases. The single announcement continued a wider pattern of OCR Title IX enforcement against trans-inclusive school policies that, across separate actions in 2026, has also reached school districts and colleges in Maryland, Michigan, and California.