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The federal education department has found that Jeffco Public Schools’ policies on sports participation, bathroom use, and overnight trip accommodations violate a federal law the Trump administration has used to challenge transgender students’ rights.
The department’s Office for Civil Rights said it received Jeffco athletic rosters “indicating that male students occupy 61 roster positions on girls’ sports teams,” according to a Friday press release. Jeffco Public Schools is Colorado’s second-largest district, with about 74,000 students.
It’s not clear from the press release how investigators reached the conclusion about the 61 athletes. The education department did not respond to questions.
Jeffco Public Schools did not respond to a request for comment.
The Colorado High School Activities Association, which governs high school sports, said in a statement that it doesn’t maintain data on the number of transgender student athletes.
The Office for Civil Rights investigated Jeffco for violating Title IX, which prohibits discrimination based on sex. President Donald Trump has made targeting protections for transgender students a key part of his second term, and his administration’s interpretation of Title IX is contested. The civil rights office previously found that Colorado’s largest district, Denver Public Schools, violated Title IX by converting a girls’ restroom into an all-gender restroom.
The Jeffco investigation came after several families sued the district over its policy for overnight accommodations for trangender students. One family claimed their daughter, then 11 years old, was assigned to share a bed with a transgender student on an out-of-state trip.
In court documents, Jeffco Public Schools argued that the district “does not typically know the sex assigned at birth of any of its students” because parents can legally change the sex designation on their child’s birth certificate before enrolling the child in school.
In the case of the 11-year-old, trip organizers “quickly and discreetly” moved her to a different room when she expressed discomfort, Jeffco wrote in court documents.
A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in August. The families appealed that ruling in September, and the case is set for an appeals hearing in May, court records show.
Jeffco Public Schools’ policy says that in most cases, transgender students “should be assigned to share overnight accommodations with other students that share the student’s gender identity,” though it notes that determinations will be made on a case-by-case basis. The policy is the same when it comes to transgender students’ access to locker rooms.
The policy says students should have access to a restroom that aligns with their gender identity. As for sports participation, Jeffco’s policy points to the bylaws of the Colorado High School Activities Association, or CHSAA, which say the transgender student’s school should meet with the student “to determine the gender assignment for the prospective student-athlete.”
The bylaws say CHSAA will review those decisions according to its policies and appeals procedures. But in its statement Friday, CHSAA said it has “no history” of doing so. School districts don’t share that information with CHSAA due to student privacy laws, it said.
The Office for Civil Rights has given Jeffco 10 days to agree to a proposed resolution “or risk imminent enforcement action,” the press release says.
The proposal would require Jeffco to rescind or revise its policies about bathroom access, overnight accommodations, and sports; adopt “biology-based definitions of the words ‘male’ and female;’” issue a statement saying that Title IX applies regardless of state law; and post that statement “in a prominent location” on its main website and girls’ sports websites.
Jeffco had previously said that its policies were grounded in Colorado’s anti-discrimination law, the regulations for which say transgender individuals should be allowed to use restrooms, locker rooms, and dormitories that are consistent with their gender identity.
Eight conservative-leaning Colorado school districts and charter schools are suing the state, arguing that the anti-discrimination law violates students’ rights by allowing transgender youth to play on sports teams that match their gender identity. Jeffco is not involved in that lawsuit.
This story has been updated with information from the Colorado High School Activities Association.
Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.
