Education Department Cancels Title IX Agreements Protecting LGBTQ Students at Six Schools

On April 6, 2026, the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights rescinded civil rights resolution agreements with five school districts and one college that had been negotiated under the Obama and Biden administrations to protect transgender and gay students under Title IX. The affected institutions were the Cape Henlopen School District in Delaware, the Fife School District in Washington, the Delaware Valley School District in Pennsylvania, the La Mesa-Spring Valley and Sacramento City Unified districts in California, and Taft College in California. Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said the department was "removing the unnecessary and unlawful burdens that prior Administrations imposed on schools." Reporting described these as the first known instances of the administration formally tearing up such settlements.

Resolution agreements are the mechanism by which the Office for Civil Rights closes discrimination investigations without litigation; schools accept binding commitments in exchange for the case ending. Rescinding them retroactively unwinds obligations that districts had already agreed to and signals that prior settlements are subject to reversal when an administration changes its statutory interpretation.

The rescissions took effect immediately. The department had separately sued California and Minnesota over transgender athletic participation policies.