The Education Department is investigating whether five Northern Virginia school districts violated Title IX and one of President Trump’s recent executive orders by allowing transgender students to use their chosen name and pronouns at school and access restrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity.
The department’s Office for Civil Rights opened probes into the Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William County school districts, according to a letter sent Wednesday to America First Legal, a conservative organization founded by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.
The group had asked the department to conduct investigations into the five school districts earlier this month, alleging each of them had continued enforcing policies meant to support transgender students in violation of Title IX, the federal civil rights law banning sex discrimination in schools. The policies vary by school district, but all allow transgender students to use restrooms and changing rooms that match their gender identity.
America First Legal argued in its complaint that the policies also conflict with a Jan. 29 executive order targeting public schools that promote what Trump and his administration call “gender ideology.”
The organization said the districts’ policies, which require staff to address transgender students using their chosen name and pronouns, violate a provision in the order prohibiting public schools from helping a student’s “social” gender transition.
When a person socially transitions, they typically change their name, pronouns or clothing to best align with their gender identity. Social transition does not include any medical interventions.
In its complaint to the Education Department, America First Legal said the districts’ transgender policies “provide greater rights to students whose ‘gender identity’ does not match their biological sex than it does to students whose ‘gender identity’ matches their biological sex.”
“Thus, these policies erase the very concept of biological sex in favor of ‘gender identity’ and codify discrimination ‘on the basis of sex,’” the group wrote.
The Education Department did not immediately return a request for comment.
The school districts mentioned in the complaint are in predominantly blue areas of Virginia, which former Vice President Harris won in 2024, and have previously rejected calls from Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration to roll back certain nondiscrimination protections for transgender students.
Model transgender policies finalized by Youngkin’s education department in 2023 sought to prevent schools from granting trans students access to facilities and sports teams that match their gender identity and allow their peers and teachers to misgender them. The model policies, which sparked student-led protests across the state, did not include an enforcement mechanism.
Prince William County Public Schools confirmed to The Hill Monday that the Education Department had notified it of the investigation.
“PWCS will, of course, cooperate with the investigation,” the school district said in an emailed statement. “PWCS remains committed to providing a welcoming, nurturing learning environment where all of our students feel safe and supported mentally, physically, and emotionally.”
Loudoun County Public Schools said it “is aware of the investigation and will respond in accordance with the law.”
Representatives from Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax Public Schools did not immediately return requests for comment.
The Education Department’s investigations into the school districts are the latest in a series of probes launched into public schools and athletic associations supportive of transgender students.
The department late last month said it was investigating an all-gender bathroom at a Denver high school, and, earlier this month, announced investigations into two state athletic associations that said they would not abide by Trump’s executive order to ban transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports.
The Education Department is also investigating another state sports association and two colleges that allowed a transgender student-athlete to compete on the women’s team for “apparent Title IX violations.”
