The Department of Education has formally rescinded the 2024 Title IX regulations, a Biden-era policy that extended the federal ban on sex discrimination in schools to also protect LGBTQ+ people. The change prompted pushback from advocates.
What has the Trump administration done instead?
In the regulations’ place, the department reinstated 2020 regulations from President Donald Trump’s first administration, which took immediate effect “without a notice-and-comment period,” said EducationWeek. Trump’s regulations outline “how schools must handle reports of sexual misconduct,” including setting a “stricter definition for what constitutes sexual harassment and giving more due process rights to those accused,” said The Washington Post.
The change formalizes how the Trump administration enforced Title IX since January 2025 and will “faithfully reflect court orders and congressional intent” while “reducing confusion for parents, students and educational institutions,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a press release. The department will continue to “hold accountable any school or college that violates the rights, privacy or athletic opportunities of our women and girls.”
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McMahon has “led the administration’s push to restrict civil rights protections based on gender identity,” said The New York Times. The Biden-era Title IX rule was “already struck down in the court system” after challenges from Republican states, said The Hill.
Who will the change affect?
Critics of the move say it will harm transgender athletes and weaken protections for sexual assault victims. Sexual harassment and assault “continue to be pervasive in schools,” Shiwali Patel, the senior director of education justice at the National Women’s Law Center, said in a statement. Yet, McMahon and the Trump administration have “decided to ignore what survivors need,” instead “weaponizing Title IX to attack trans students.”
Title IX is supposed to be about protecting students and “ensuring that they are safe from abuse, harassment and discrimination while they pursue their education,” said Kelley Robinson, the president of the Human Rights Campaign. But “Trump and his cronies aren’t interested in any of that.” Rather than “enforcing protections for students,” they’re “rescinding them.” They don’t care if “sexual harassment and assault go unaddressed.” We know who will be hurt: “women, girls and others who are vulnerable to sexual harassment, assault and abuse — including LGBTQ+ students.”
