Published on June 4, 2026, at FOX31
The Trump administration on Wednesday renewed threats to Jeffco Public Schools over the district’s policies on transgender students, and the district is fighting back.
The latest U.S. Department of Education threat to the district’s federal funding comes just after a Tuesday letter from the district asking for the Department’s Office for Civil Rights to clarify findings from its investigation, which stated the district violated Title IX by allowing transgender students to play on girls’ sports teams, occupy female bathrooms and locker rooms, and share accommodations with other girls.
The Trump administration, when entering its second term last year, reverted back to a 2020 rule for Title IX to enforce protections “on the basis of biological sex in schools and on campuses.”
“Today’s letter of impasse notifies the District that OCR will prepare for impending enforcement, which, following OCR’s regulatory procedures, could ultimately result in termination of the District’s federal education funding,” the OCR’s Wednesday letter stated. It said the enforcement action would happen 10 days later if the district took no action on changing policies.
The Office for Civil Rights issued the warning letter the day after the school district sent the office its own letter, which also asked the OCR to come back to the table to discuss the investigation’s “erroneous” findings that also “incorrectly” concluded more than 60 “male students” were playing on girls’ sports teams.
“This is not true,” Jacquelynn N. Rich Fredericks, Jeffco schools’ assistant general counsel, said in the letter.
Jeffco schools provided data to the OCR for its investigation, which Fredericks in the district’s letter said did not match the OCR’s claims.
Fredericks said district representatives met with OCR representatives on May 8 to ask for detailed information on how the investigation concluded incorrect findings. The district representatives left that meeting believing the OCR would provide that information, but it has not yet happened.
“Notwithstanding, we met again May 21, and I reiterated that neither the data set, nor further inquiry have shown that any male student was a competitor on a girls’ athletic team,” Fredericks said. “Also, that the available data does not support that any female student athlete has been deprived of a competitive opportunity.”
Fredericks said the investigation’s premise “that girls in Jeffco are being harmed by facilities use policies that have been the law statewide in Colorado since 2012 and also denied equal athletic opportunities—is contradicted by the facts” and that the district was scheduled to meet with the OCR again on June 16.
Fredericks also said the district’s policies mostly align with the majority of other districts in Colorado, and the district’s policies on transgender students are grounded in Colorado’s Antidiscrimination Act requirements. The Colorado Supreme Court also earlier this year found that federal declarations like the Title IX rule on “biological sex” are not laws in themselves and do not supersede state law, so Jeffco schools said they must still follow Colorado’s Antidiscrimination Act.
Regardless of the conversations and meetings, the OCR in its Wednesday letter cited the district’s “ongoing refusal to comply with Title IX” and no action to align with a resolution agreement from the investigation as the reasons for issuing the warning letter.
“Not only did the District trample on females’ sex-based protections by allowing males to compete in their sports, intrude in their bathrooms, and sleep in their overnight accommodations, but now it refuses to fix the problem after being given the chance. It is indifferent to the law and to the safety, privacy, and dignity of women and girls. Its behavior here is unconscionable,” Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said in the letter. “The District must restore Title IX protections or risk further enforcement action. As we continue to honor June as Title IX Month, the Trump Administration will not allow students to continue to be abused at the hands of a radical ideological agenda that undermines the basic protections to which they are entitled under law.”
Jeffco Public Schools on Wednesday responded to the OCR’s warning letter, saying it was “shocked and disappointed” that the OCR was “abandoning efforts to work collaborative.”
The district suggested the OCR take its demands to the state since its policies are in line with Colorado’s Antidiscrimination Act, but also opened the door to more conversations with the OCR.
“We are still within the 90 days that OCR’s own manual provides for good faith negotiations, do not believe that the parties are at an impasse, and invite OCR back to the negotiating table to address the very real issue now facing every single school in Colorado from Boulder to Pueblo and Lamar to Grand Junction,” the district said. “For our part, Jeffco remains committed to ensuring equitable educational opportunities for all Jeffco kids, and to complying with applicable laws.”
