School districts in New York City, Chicago, and Virginia could lose more than $24 million in federal funds in the next fiscal year after missing the Trump administration’s deadline to address potential civil rights violations.
Craig Trainor, the Department of Education’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, warned the districts last week that if they did not comply with federal law by Tuesday, the administration would not certify their multimillion-dollar Magnet School Assistance Program grants, known as MSAP grants, the New York Post reported Thursday.
The grants fund specialized public “magnet” schools designed to attract a diverse student body.
In Sept. 16 letters to New York City Public Schools Chair Gregory Faulkner, Chicago Board of Education President Sean Harden, and Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid, Trainor accused the districts of violating Title IX by discriminating on the basis of sex in policies for transgender and gender-expansive students, the Post reported.
Because they missed the deadline, Trainor will not certify the districts as compliant with civil rights law, a requirement for MSAP funding. As a result, they will not be eligible for the grants in the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, according to the Post.
At stake: $15 million for New York City Community School Districts, $5.8 million for Chicago Public Schools, and $3.4 million for Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia.
“The Department will not rubber-stamp civil rights compliance for New York, Chicago, and Fairfax while they blatantly discriminate against students based on race and sex,” Education Department spokesperson Julie Hartman told the Post. “These are public schools, funded by hardworking American families, and parents have every right to expect an excellent education — not ideological indoctrination masquerading as ‘inclusive’ policy.
“If these entities are willing to risk federal funding to continue their illegal activity, that decision falls squarely on them.”
The Post reported that New York’s guidelines require that “transgender and expansive students must be provided access to facilities [restrooms, locker rooms, or changing rooms] consistent with their gender identity asserted at school” and demand that schools provide “students who are gender-fluid” with restroom and locker room access that “affirms their identity.”
The guidelines also permit students to play for sports teams or join activities “in accordance with the student’s gender identity asserted at school,” including overnight trips where students would be “expected to bunk with a member of the opposite sex if an opposite-sex student asserts that he or she identifies as the same gender,” according to Trainor.
Fairfax County Public Schools has a similar regulation, the Post reported, requiring that “gender-expansive and transgender students shall be provided with the option of using a locker room or restroom consistent with the student’s gender identity.”
Trainor noted that the district informed the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights that it had been sued before the 2024-25 school year by students alleging the regulation violated their free speech, free exercise, due process, and equal protection rights.
Meanwhile, Chicago Public Schools officials were asked to rescind policies allowing transgender students access to intimate spaces and to participate in competitive athletics corresponding with their gender identity.
The district was also accused of promoting “textbook racial discrimination” through an academic initiative aimed at providing remedial resources only to Black students.
Trainor described Chicago’s Black Student Success Plan as “racially exclusionary” and a violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
A spokesperson for New York City Public Schools told the Post the district is “deeply disappointed” the Trump administration denied its request to extend the deadline to consider the “sweeping policy changes.”
Elizabeth K. Barton, acting general counsel for the Chicago Board of Education, accused Trainor of putting Chicago schools in an “unreasonable” and “impossible position” to defend their policies “without the factual and legal basis that only you can provide,” according to the Post.
Fairfax County Public Schools did not respond to the Post’s request for comment.
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