Trump Administration Targets NYC Magnet School Funding Over Transgender Bathroom Policy

By Mary Alice Miller
New York City magnet schools are the latest target of the Trump administration over transgender issues. The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights sent a letter to New York City, Chicago, and Fairfax Public Schools, Virginia notifying them that discretionary grants under the Magnet School Assistance Program are at risk unless those school systems become compliant with Title IX.

Enacted in 1972, Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school, university, or any other education program or activity that receives federal funding. The law prohibits sexual harassment, sexual violence, dating violence, stalking, and other sex-based misconduct that creates a hostile environment.
It also prohibits retaliation against any person who brings or participates in any complaint action such as discrimination or harassment under Title IX.

Athletic equality requirements under Title IX require schools make efforts to expand opportunities for females to participate in school sports proportional to male participation.
Exempt from Title IX are membership practices of YMCA, YWCA, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls.
At risk for non-compliance with the Title IX directive is millions of dollars in federal funding, specifically $15 million for New York City and a total of $67 million for all three school districts.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams had expressed agreement with sex-based school facilities and sports one day before the Office for Civil Rights letter was sent.
“We’re going so far away from common sense,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said at a press conference. “My utmost importance is to ensure that when my children are in school, they’re in a safe environment. And I do not believe a safe environment is allowing boys and girls to use the same facility at the same time.”

Adams said he will look at his “authority and power to change that,” adding, “We have become so politically correct that we are incorrect.”
Democratic mayoral candidate Mamdani responded on X, “Awful and dangerous to hear the Mayor echo the transphobic bigotry coming from the Trump administration.”
New York State Education Department spokesperson JP O’Hare wrote in a statement, “Under the State Human Rights Law, transgender and gender expansive students are entitled to use the restroom or locker room that aligns with their gender identity.”

NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman responded to Adams position in a written statement that said, “Let’s be clear: the mayor has no authority to ban trans students from using bathrooms that match their gender identity. Such a move would be illegal under New York State and New York City laws and an affront to our shared values.”

“Students are going to school to learn,” Executive Director of NEW Pride Agenda Kei Williams, said. “Having to mandate that you’re able to utilize the restroom of your gender identity, of your gender expression is the least that you can do. That is the floor.”
Williams called the Trump administration’s stance on transgender school policy “extremely reckless, callous and hateful rhetoric.”

New York City Department of Education requires that schools allow students to access bathrooms and the opportunity to compete in sports teams, among other activities, that correspond with the students’ gender identities.

The letter from the Office for Civil Rights noted that “Title IX’s commitment to sex-separated intimate facilities and athletics is based on immutable biological differences, well-established privacy interests, and ensuring the safety of all students when in enclosed and vulnerable spaces and engaged in the competitive, physical activity of sports.

This is not only permissible and advisable but often necessary to ensure equal opportunities for girls and women and prevent a hostile educational environment.”

The letter went on to state that “When recipients of Federal funding require schools to treat ‘Trans-identifying’ males as if they are ‘females’, including in intimate traditionally sex-separate facilities, they defeat the very purpose of Title IX: to ensure equal opportunities for women while not jeopardizing their privacy, safety or other rights.

Simply put, allowing males in girls’ sports, intimate facilities, or private spaces, such as with overnight sleeping accommodations or vice versa, violates Title IX by creating a hostile educational environment or denying females and males equal access to benefits of education programs or activities.”
The letter focused on Chicago Public Schools, but New York City and Fairfax Public Schools also received the letter regarding transgender policies.

The Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig W. Trainor wrote in the letter that he “will not certify” Chicago Public Schools grant and CPS’ MSAP grant “will be non-continued because it is no longer in the best interest of the Federal Government.”
In order to comply with the law, the Office for Civil Rights requires that Chicago Public Schools

-Adopt biology-based definitions for the words ‘male’ and ‘female’ pursuant to Title IX.

-Issue a public statement to parents, students, and staff stating that CPS will comply with Title IX and specifying that it will not allow males to compete in female athletic programs or occupy intimate facilities designated for females.

-Specify that CPS must provide sleeping arrangements during overnight activities ad athletic trips to its students strictly separated on the basis of sex and comparably provided to each sex.
-Specify that CPS must provide intimate facilities such as locker rooms and bathrooms accessible to students strictly separated on the basis of sex and comparably provided to each sex.

-Specify that Title IX forbids schools from allowing boys or men to participate in any athletic program designated for girls or women, ensuring that only female students are eligible to join, participate, or be categorized or counted as a member of Girls’ Team(s)/Category(s) and that all male students are ineligible to join, participate, or be categorized or counted as a member of Girls’ Team(s)/Category(s); and

-Rescind any guidance that violates Title IX, remove or revise any internal and public-facing statements or documents that are inconsistent with Title IX, and notify all parents, students, and staff of such rescissions and revisions.

In May 2021, a 14-year-old trans-identifying boy sexually assaulted a girl student in a locker room at Stone Bridge High School, Loudoun County Public Schools, Virginia. The girl’s father, seeking redress for his daughter, was arrested at a school board meeting in what was thought to be an attempt to cover up the transgender student’s crime.

The transgender student was transferred to another school where he sexually assaulted another girl student in October of that year. The male student was found guilty in juvenile court of two counts of sexual assault for the attacks at both schools in 2022. The father was later pardoned. The family of the first victim filed a $30 million lawsuit against LCPS for its failure to protect the student and its mishandling of the case.

In September 2025, the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights found the Loudoun County Public Schools violated Title IX by retaliating against two male students who complained after a biological female who identified as male recorded audio and video of two boys in the Stone Bridge High School locker room.