Both counties have policies that allow students to use the restroom or locker room that corresponds to the gender the student claims he or she identifies with, rather than the one that matches the student’s biological sex. The policy allows biological men, who claim to identify as women, to use women’s restrooms and locker rooms, something Trump administration officials say is a violation of Title IX.<\/p>\n

The Education Department announced last week<\/a> that it would place the two school districts, alongside three other northern Virginia school districts with similar policies, on “high-risk status with the condition that all federal funding flowing to these districts is done by reimbursement only.” The agency pointed to districts’ refusal to resolve the matter voluntarily by changing the policy to separate bathrooms by biological sex, rather than gender identity.<\/p>\n

“States and school districts cannot openly violate federal law<\/a> while simultaneously receiving federal funding with no additional scrutiny,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said last week. “The Northern Virginia School Divisions that are choosing to abide by woke gender ideology in place of federal law must now prove they are using every single federal dollar for a legal purpose.<\/p>\n

“We have given these Northern Virginia School Divisions every opportunity to rectify their policies which blatantly violate Title IX,” McMahon added. “Today’s accountability measures are necessary because they have stubbornly refused to provide a safe environment for young women in their schools.”<\/p>\n

The school districts point to a 2020 ruling in Grimm v. Gloucester County<\/em> School Board<\/em> by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which is the federal appellate court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The 4th Circuit ruled in that case that a policy that restricted students to bathrooms corresponding to their biological sex violated the equal protection clause and Title IX, also finding that transgender people constitute a class for equal protection claims.<\/p>\n

In its June ruling in United States v. Skrmetti<\/em><\/a>, however, the Supreme Court did not find that transgender people constitute a class for equal protection claims. The high court will take up a case in its next term that will deal with whether a state law limiting female sports<\/a> to biological women violates Title IX or the equal protection clause.<\/p>\n

The Washington Examiner<\/em> reached out to the Education Department for comment on the lawsuits filed Friday but did not receive a response.<\/p>\n

SUPREME COURT TO HEAR CHALLENGES TO BANS ON TRANSGENDER ATHLETES IN WOMEN’S SPORTS<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The lawsuits are the latest chapter in a saga between the left-leaning school districts<\/a> and the Education Department over bathroom and locker room policies, along with the larger legal battle across the country regarding the policies in schools.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, South Carolina Solicitor General Thomas Hydrick asked the Supreme Court<\/a> on its emergency docket to allow the state to enforce its school bathroom policy, which restricts men’s and women’s bathrooms to biological men and women, respectively.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n