Colorado’s second-largest school district, Jefferson County Public Schools (Jeffco), has made history as one of the few local school districts to sue the Trump administration for its threats to cut off federal education funding unless the district drops its policies accommodating transgender students.
The administration threatened to cut off all $50 million of federal funding for the district’s school meals and special education. Trump’s Department of Education (ED) received a summons for the lawsuit on August 13 and referred the case to the Department of Justice (DOJ) without issuing any further legal response.
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In March, the ED demanded that the school district stop recognizing trans students’ gender identities and ban them from accessing the correct restrooms, sports teams, overnight accommodations, and other associated rights. The ED said district policies violate Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex-based educational discrimination, because they allegedly deny cisgender female students their rights to safety, dignity, and equal access to school programs.
However, dropping these policies would violate state laws protecting trans students from educational discrimination. So, in response to the ED demand, Jeffco’s interim school superintendent Rob Stein sued the department, stating that it didn’t follow proper procedures in threatening to cut off funding and that it also deliberately misinterpreted Title IX to target trans students.
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The lawsuit notes that the ED’s demand arises from a presidential executive order, not congressional laws or court decisions. As such, it remains an open legal question whether an executive order’s demands can overrule state law, a matter that even the US Supreme Court did not address in its recent ruling affirming anti-trans sports bans.
Nonetheless, Z Williams, an advocate for trans rights who co-directs the Bread and Roses Legal Center in Denver, told The New York Times that they felt “incredibly proud” of Jeffco’s school board, especially since many of the roughly five dozen schools targeted by the Trump administration have voluntarily capitulated to its demands to drop their trans-inclusive student policies.
“Trans people are being more and more villainized and more and more marginalized,” Z Williams said. “So it’s really impressive for Jeffco to fight on these issues.”
The ED investigated the district after the anti-LGBTQ+ local parents’ rights group, Jeffco Kids First, reported the district to the ED. The group claimed that 61 roster positions on girls’ sports teams are occupied by students who were assigned a male gender at birth. The group also claimed that cis female students felt nervous changing their clothes around a trans female high schooler during an overnight trip.
Jeffco says that it has no known out trans student-athletes, and the Trump administration misinterpreted the data on its student-athletes, incorrectly counting male trainers, mascots, and cross-country runners as participants on girls’ teams even though they neither compete against girls nor share locker rooms or other facilities with cisgender girls.
Nevertheless, the ED gave the district 10 days to revoke its trans-inclusive policies and to issue a public statement saying that it would adopt the Trump administration’s transphobic definition of biological sex or face possible enforcement action, including a loss of federal education funding.
“Providing equal access to programs and services for all Jeffco students, including those who are transgender, does not violate Title IX,” the district wrote in a March statement. “The Department’s interpretation has no basis in the Title IX regulations and is not supported by any binding court decision. It conflicts with a recent U.S. District of Colorado decision which considered the same Jeffco policies. Prior federal administrations have taken the direct opposite view — that Title IX protects transgender students’ access to school programs and facilities.”
Jeffco wrote that its policies align with the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, prior federal guidance on Title IX, and the policies of the Colorado High School Activities Association. The district also noted that, since 2013, the Colorado Civil Rights Commission has interpreted state law to require school districts to accommodate students based on their gender identity.
Transgender journalist Erin Reed reported that the district was the first in the state to pass a policy protecting trans students. Reed also noted that Colorado’s legislature passed S.B. 296, which requires schools to investigate reports of anti-trans discrimination; H.B. 1039, which requires school workers to address students by their chosen names; and the Kelly Loving Act, which requires schools to allow students to follow any dress codes regardless of gender.
Reed further noted that Denver Public Schools, five Virginia school districts, and Chicago Public Schools have all refused to comply with similar threats from Trump’s ED, with no repercussions. New York City Public Schools also sued after the ED withheld $47 million in magnet school funding over trans-inclusive school policies.
The Trump administration’s top civil rights lawyer, Harmeet Dhillon, was the keynote speaker at a fundraiser for Jeffco Kids First early last month. The administration said her speech didn’t violate ethical guidelines because Dhillon left before the group’s fundraising activities began, though her speech undoubtedly attracted funders to the event
“Passionate community members — like all of you in this room — are part of the reason why this Department of Justice, perhaps for the first time ever, is taking the side of parents as vigorously as you’re seeing in this administration,” Dhillon said.
As the new school year starts up, Jeffco school officials have been advising educators on how to discuss gender identity and discouraging teachers from handing out any questionnaires that ask students if they should use their pronouns when communicating with parents, the Times reported.
In November, Colorado voters will weigh in on a statewide anti-trans sports ban. As of early 2026, 27 states have enacted laws or regulations banning trans girls and women from participating in school sports teams that align with their gender identity.
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