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≡ DOE WARNS CALIFORNIA ≡
“Today, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced the conclusion of its Title IX investigations into the California Department of Education (CDE) and the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) for allegations of discrimination against women and girls on the basis of sex. In both cases, OCR has determined that CDE and CIF are in clear violation of Title IX.”
Wednesday’s announcement further specified the grounds:
“Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 requires schools to ensure equal opportunities for girls, including in athletic activities, but California has actively prevented this equality of opportunity by allowing males in girls’ sports and intimate spaces”
and what comes next:
“As a result of the noncompliance finding, OCR has issued a proposed Resolution Agreement to CDE and CIF to resolve their Title IX violations. OCR has offered both entities an opportunity to voluntarily agree to change these unlawful practices within 10 days or risk imminent enforcement action, including referral to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for proceedings.”
The announcement further described in detail its proposal as to what the California Department of Education (CDE) and California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) are required to do:
“(i) The CDE will issue a Notice to all recipients of federal funding (Recipients) that operate interscholastic athletic programs in California requiring them to comply with Title IX. This will specify that Title IX and its implementing regulations forbids schools from allowing males from participating in female sports and from occupying female intimate facilities, and that Recipients must adopt biology-based definitions of the words ‘male’ and ‘female’;
“(ii) The CDE will issue a Notice advising Recipients that any interpretation of California state law conflicting with the Department’s Resolution Agreement is preempted by federal law under Title IX;
“(iii) The CDE and CIF will rescind any guidance that advised local school districts or CIF members to permit male athletes to participate in women’s and girls’ sports to reflect that Title IX preempts state law when state law conflicts with Title IX;
“(iv) CDE will require all Recipients, including CIF, to restore to female athletes all individual records, titles, and awards misappropriated by male athletes competing in female competitions;
“(v) To each female athlete to whom an individual recognition is restored, CDE will send a personalized letter apologizing on behalf of the state of California for allowing her educational experience to be marred by sex discrimination; and
“(vi) The CDE will require each Recipient and CIF to submit to CDE an annual certification that the Recipient and CIF have complied with Title IX. Accordingly, CDE will also propose to OCR a Monitoring Plan to ensure that Recipients are fully complying with Title IX.”
There is little chance of agreement from the California Department of Education or the CIF, as the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division sent a 28 May letter stating that the inclusion of Jurupa Valley transgender AB Hernandez in the CIF State Track & Field Championships – she won two events and was second in a third – was in violation of Title IX.
California’s reply came on 9 June:
“California Attorney General Rob Bonta today filed a pre-enforcement lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice (U.S. DOJ) in anticipation of imminent legal retaliation against California’s school systems. …
“Today, the California Department of Education notified U.S. DOJ that the state will not certify to its demands, which would require school districts to violate not only existing state law, but also the U.S. Constitution.
“In the lawsuit, Attorney General Bonta asks the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to uphold California’s anti-discrimination law and prevent the Trump Administration from taking retaliatory action, such as withholding or conditioning federal funding, over the state’s refusal to comply with U.S. DOJ’s unlawful demands.”
Further, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, Bill Essayli, filed a statement of interest in the 31 January 2025 suit, Save Girls’ Sports, et al. v. Thurmond, et al, which concerns students at Martin Luther King High School in Riverside who lost opportunities in favor of transgenders, under California’s AB 1266, allowing participation in sports based on gender identity.
So, the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice are essentially now attacking the California Department of Education (and the CIF) on three sides at once.
There appears to be little interest from the California side in agreeing to any of the demands from the Trump Administration and will send the cases through the courts. That appears to suit Education and Justice just fine; Wednesday’s Education Department announcement points to last week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in U.S. vs. Skrmetti (23-477), where
“the Supreme Court acknowledged that a person’s identification as ‘transgender’ is distinct from a person’s ‘biological sex.’
“Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.“
¶
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