Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.
The U.S. Department of Education announced Thursday that it will launch an investigation into Chicago Public Schools, the Illinois State Board of Education and suburban Deerfield Public School District 109 for alleged violations of the Title IX, federal law that prohibits sex discrimination.
The department’s Office of Civil Rights investigation comes in response to a federal complaint filed earlier this week by conservative groups against the district and Illinois’ education department. Those groups — the Defense of Freedom Institute of Policy Studies and the Liberty Justice Center — say that state and district policies are “forcing students to share bathrooms, locker rooms, and overnight accommodations with members of the opposite sex, based solely on self-declared ‘gender identity’.
The investigations put a state with outspoken progressive leadership in the crosshairs of a Trump administration that has shown it will use the threat of losing federal funding to influence policy in schools. Any violations of Title IX could result in a loss of federal funding, the department said in its press release. The investigation also comes at an awkward time: President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday that calls for abolishing the U.S. Department of Education. Abolishing the agency would require approval from Congress.
It’s unclear how that would affect programs that benefit vulnerable students. The Education Department administers Title I, which provides extra money to high-poverty schools, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which supports special education.
Districts in Illinois, including CPS, as well as the state, have adopted policies that are meant to affirm and protect the identities of its LGTBQ and gender non-conforming students. In Chicago, for example, that includes allowing students to be addressed by the name and pronouns that match their gender identity. It also allows students to use the locker room or bathroom that matches their gender identity.
Even though the department has only just announced its investigation, the department’s press release includes a quote from one of the complainants that triggered the inquiry: the Defense of Freedom Institute, a right-leaning think tank focused on education and labor issues.
The federal complaint filed earlier this week says that state and district policies violate the privacy rights of other students. The groups also claim that the state prevents schools from telling parents about students’ gender identities.
Craig Trainor, the department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a statement that Title IX was created with the understanding that “males and females, especially minors, have a right to be free from compelled exposure of their bodies or from engaging in intimate activities — like changing their clothes in a locker room — in front of the opposite sex.”
Jaclyn Matthews, a spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Education, said the department cannot comment on matters involving the federal Office of Civil Rights.
Chicago Public Schools said in a statement that any complaint will be reviewed and responded to “in a timely manner.”
In a statement, Deerfield Public Schools said it complies with Illinois state law, which “prohibits all public school districts from discriminating on the basis of sex, including gender identity, and mandates that students must be permitted access to the locker room and bathroom that aligns with their gender identity.”
The district also said that it is “sensitive” to the privacy needs of its students and said it added five private changing stations at its two middle schools that are available for all students, giving them “multiple options” outside of the locker room.
Under former President Joe Biden, new rules in Title IX were created to protect gender identity. Schools were considered in violation of student rights if they prevented students from, for example, using bathrooms that matched their gender identity or if teachers did not use a student’s chosen name and pronouns. Those changes prompted Republican-controlled states to sue the Biden administration.
After a federal judge overturned Biden’s Title IX rules in January, schools reverted back to the rules in place during the first Trump administration, which do not include protections for LGBTQ students.
The investigation announced Thursday is part of a broader effort from the federal government to clamp down on policies that districts view as protections for their LGBTQ and gender nonconforming students.
Last month, the department announced a Title IX investigation into the Maine education department, as well as an individual school district — a process that could offer clues about what is ahead for Illinois.
This week, the Trump administration announced that Maine had violated Title IX and listed its proposed remedies, which includes forbidding “males to participate in any athletic program, or access any locker room or bathroom, designated for females and that meaning of words such as ‘woman’ and ‘man’ are to be understood ‘in the context of the facts that there are only two sexes.’” State officials were given 10 days to respond.
The Democratic governors of both Maine and Illinois have picked public fights with Trump. On Thursday, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker criticized Trump’s executive order to dissolve the U.S. Department of Education.
Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.
