Jeffco schools sues Trump administration to block funding cuts due to transgender-inclusive policies

Jeffco Public Schools sued the Trump administration Tuesday for threatening $50 million in annual federal funding because of district policies that are inclusive of transgender students.

The lawsuit stems from the U.S. Department of Education’s inquiries into the Colorado school district’s policies that allow transgender girls to access girls’ restrooms, participate in girls’ sports teams and share accommodations with students who match their gender identity on overnight trips. The Trump administration claimed the district violated Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination by schools that receive federal funds.  

Jeffco Public Schools can either violate the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act or risk enforcement from the federal government that threatened funding for all students, the lawsuit says. In a statement, Rob Stein, the interim superintendent of the district, said this puts the district “in an impossible position.”

“Because the new federal guidelines and State law conflict, Jeffco has asked the court to provide clarity about which direction the district must follow,” Stein said. “This lawsuit is a procedural legal step that seeks guidance from the courts on how to resolve that conflict.”

Stein said the goal of the lawsuit is to protect the resources students in the district rely on “while seeking clear direction from the courts when two legal entities conflict.” Federal funding at risk supports school programs that benefit students across the district, including some of its “most vulnerable learners,” he added.  

The district has cooperated with the department’s questions around school operations, but the department has “not followed its own policies, ignored the information Jeffco has provided, and taken concrete steps to threaten Jeffco’s federal funding,” the lawsuit says. The district filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Colorado. 

The department’s Office for Civil Rights sent letters to the district in June that said it risks losing federal funding if it continues to accommodate transgender students, which the administration argues is a violation of Title IX. The district’s lawsuit says it could face future litigation from the state or students if it does not comply with state law that prohibits discrimination based on a student’s gender identity.  

“Jeffco schools are committed to ensuring every student’s right to equal educational opportunities and protecting the well-being and dignity of all Jeffco students,” the lawsuit says. “The Defendants’ attempt to force Jeffco to violate state law and abandon these core tenets has already undermined community trust, created uncertainty for students and families, and diverted critical resources away from Jeffco’s educational mission.”

The lawsuit cited a recent ruling from the Colorado Supreme Court that said Children’s Hospital Colorado cannot stop offering care to transgender children, in violation of the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, even though the Trump administration threatened to pull federal funding. It argues that state law supersedes direction from the executive branch that did not go through proper public review processes. 

In an email, the department said it does not comment on ongoing investigations. 

Republicans and the Trump administration have repeatedly used Title IX as a basis to limit protections for transgender students. 

District policy says sleeping arrangements for overnight school trips are determined on a case-by-case basis while maximizing social integration, minimizing stigma, providing equal opportunity and ensuring safety and comfort for transgender students. Transgender students under no circumstance would be required to share a room with students whose gender identity conflicts with their own, the policy says. 

In August, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit from parents looking to block the policy. Parents claimed their child was assigned to sleep in the same bed as a transgender student on a 2023 school trip, but the district said students never shared beds on the trip. It also did not know the student in question was transgender because she “enrolled for the trip as a female, consistent with her school enrollment and gender identity as expressed there for several years.” 

The 2023 trip is what prompted the federal investigation.