After the Department of Education and the Department of Justice rescinded Obama administration guidance regarding transgender students in February, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has received new guidance on how to deal with cases of discrimination against transgender students.
The instructions, issued to employees last week, say officials should rely on “Title IX and its implementing regulations ... in evaluating complaints of sex discrimination against individuals whether or not the individual is transgender.”
An employee familiar with the guidance ― which was obtained by HuffPost and can be read in full below ― says he interprets this to mean that officials should investigate issues of discrimination just as they would have before the Obama-era rules were implemented.
The Obama administration called on school districts to treat a student’s gender identity as their sex and to treat students in a way consistent with their gender identity, including when it came to bathrooms and locker rooms. After rescinding this guidance, Trump administration agencies sent a letter saying the issue should be decided at the local level.
The Trump administration guidance calls on OCR investigators to look into situations in which schools failed to protect transgender students who face sex discrimination, harassment or different treatment based on sex stereotyping. It specifically mentions instances of harassment in which transgender students are called the wrong pronoun or name.
Groups that advocate for LGBTQ students are meeting with Department of Education officials Friday morning for more clarification.
Read the full guidance below:
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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