Education Department Cuts Funding For 5 Virginia School Districts Over Title IX Violations
Five districts were placed on high-risk status and shifted to reimbursement-only funding after refusing to change ‘gender identity’ policies.
The U.S. Department of Education today announced it is placing five Northern Virginia school divisions—Alexandria City, Arlington, Fairfax County, Loudoun County, and Prince William County—on “high-risk” status and is restricting their access to more than $50 million in federal funding.
The move comes after the districts refused to sign a Resolution Agreement to address what the Department has determined are violations of Title IX.
According to a Department of Education statement, the five school divisions were found in violation of Title IX last month for policies that “allow students to occupy intimate facilities based on ‘gender identity,’ not biological sex.” Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in educational programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance.
The school divisions were given a deadline of last Friday, August 15, to voluntarily resolve the violations by signing a proposed agreement. Their refusal to do so has prompted the Department to take a more forceful stance.
“States and school districts cannot openly violate federal law while simultaneously receiving federal funding with no additional scrutiny,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon in the statement. “We have given these Northern Virginia School Divisions every opportunity to rectify their policies which blatantly violate Title IX. Today’s accountability measures are necessary because they have stubbornly refused to provide a safe environment for young women in their schools.”
As a result of their refusal, the Department is now commencing administrative proceedings that could lead to the suspension or termination of federal financial assistance entirely.
For now, the immediate consequence for the districts is a shift to reimbursement-only funding. This means that instead of receiving federal funds upfront, the school divisions will now be required to pay for their education expenses out of their own budgets and then request reimbursement from the Department of Education. The Department will then scrutinize these expenditures to ensure they are for legal purposes and in conformity with federal law.
The “high-risk” classification is a formal designation within the federal grant system that alerts all federal agencies to an entity’s failure to comply with the terms of its grant agreements. The Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) had concluded its investigation on July 25, finding the violations, and had granted an extension for the divisions to reach a voluntary resolution before today’s announcement.
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