The U.S. Department of Education was established in 1980 as a civil rights agency, charged with ensuring high-quality and equal educational opportunities for all students. The Trump administration’s misleading framing that dismantling the Department is necessary to “return education to the states” is a harmful narrative that cloaks a broader agenda to dismantle civil rights protections and obscure the real-world impacts of nonenforcement for students and families navigating discrimination in K-12 schools. The Trump administration is undermining equal educational opportunity for all students through its unsupported and politicized use of federal law to attack school districts that refuse to discriminate against transgender, nonbinary, and gender-expansive students.

Since January 2025, Trump’s federal agencies have launched over 100 investigations into school districts, universities, state departments of education, and statewide athletic associations with trans-inclusive policies. These investigations are part of a targeted pressure campaign to reject the existence and dignity of trans students by distorting federal law and imposing the administration’s discriminatory views of trans people. Trump’s federal investigations have largely been sham processes meant to force schools to abandon their inclusive policies. Agencies have sped through investigations, overstated or misrepresented the law, and presented school districts with sweeping resolution agreements that reject supports for trans students and encourage discrimination against trans youth in every facet of the school community. 

Schools with trans-inclusive policies that have been targeted for investigation are not alone and should not shirk from their obligation to provide a safe learning environment for all, including trans youth. Many schools have rejected the Trump administration’s pressure campaign and refused to capitulate with demands that inclusive policies be rolled back and substituted with exclusionary policies that would foster greater discrimination and harm for trans students. Schools should continue to honor their obligations under the law and ensure trans students can learn, grow, and thrive in a school environment free from discrimination. Read the full resource here.