School division policies on sports and locker rooms found in violation of Title IX civil rights protections

RICHMOND, VA – Governor Glenn Youngkin today announced the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) determined that the gender policies of five school divisions in Northern Virginia – Fairfax County, Loudoun County, Arlington County, Prince William County and the City of Alexandria – violate Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The school division policies allow students of the opposite sex access to intimate sex-separated facilities and allow students of the opposite sex to participate in sex-separated sports.

“These school divisions have been violating federal law, deliberately neglecting their responsibility to protect students’ safety, privacy and dignity, and ignoring parents’ rights. They got away with this behavior because the Biden Administration backed them up. Commonsense is back, with biological boys and girls in their own locker rooms and bathrooms, and boys out of girls sports,” said Governor Glenn Youngkin. “Earlier this year, I asked Attorney General Jason Miyares to investigate Title IX violations in Loudoun County, where school officials shockingly targeted boys who were expressing their concern that a biological girl was being allowed in the boys locker room. It is time for these school leaders to do the right thing for students and parents. I thank President Trump and Secretary McMahon for their actions in defense of student safety, privacy and dignity.”

“I fought to prevent the Biden Administration’s radical Title IX re-interpretation from being imposed on Virginia’s public schools,” said Attorney General Jason Miyares. “Those rules would have held federal education dollars hostage and forced Virginia’s public schools to submit to a radical, harmful, and ideologically driven agenda. Thankfully, we won that battle in court. Today, I am encouraged that the federal government is now working alongside us to restore sanity in public education. Concerned parents have the right to speak their minds and demand accountability from their local schools, and our daughters should have the same opportunities as our sons. The safety, privacy, and dignity of every student in Virginia is an absolute non-negotiable.”

According to the U.S. Department of Education, all five jurisdictions found that students in the Divisions avoid using school restrooms whenever possible because of the schools’ policies; in addition, female students have witnessed male students inappropriately touching other students and watching female students change in a female locker room.

The U.S. Department of Education proposed Resolution Agreement requires the Divisions to take the following actions:

• Rescind the policies and/or regulations which allow students to access intimate facilities based on their “gender identity” rather than their sex;
• Issue a memorandum to each Division school that any future policies related to access to intimate facilities must be consistent with Title IX by separating students strictly on the basis of sex, and that Title IX ensures women’s equal opportunity in any education program or activity including athletic programs; and
• Adopt biology-based definitions of the words “male” and “female” in all practices and policies relating to Title IX.

OCR has offered the Divisions an opportunity to voluntarily agree to these actions within 10 days or risk imminent enforcement consequences including referral to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Background: 

The following is a limited list of Title IX violations reported at these school divisions:

Arlington Public Schools (APS) 

• APS’ “Transgender Students in Schools” policy requires: “access to facilities that correspond to a student’s gender identity…be available to all students.”
• This policy was in place in January 2025 when it was reported a male sex offender (Tier III, the most serious type of sex offense) exposed his genitals to a 9-year-old in the girl’s locker room. The offender had been using the girls’ locker room for months because he claimed to identify as a female. The division continued to let the man use the facilities after repeated complaints and reports from parents.

Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) 

• FCPS’ Regulation 2603.2 states that “[i]n no case shall a gender-expansive or transgender student be required to use a locker room or restroom that conflicts with the student’s gender identity or be limited to using only a private area, single-occupancy accommodation, or other single-use facility.”
• America First Legal filed the lawsuit against FCPS on behalf of a high school senior who says that the transgender bathroom and pronoun policies go against her Roman Catholic beliefs.
• FCPS also previously instructed teachers and administrators to forgo parents’ permission when a student requested to use a bathroom or locker room associated with his or her gender identity, including a mandatory teacher training that required teachers to check boxes on a survey acknowledging that students could “change their name, without parent permission” and “identify as male, female, or non-binary,” as well as explicitly acknowledging that parent permission was not required for a student to change their name or use a locker room corresponding with their identified gender.
• FCPS also created a handbook with rules allowing suspension of students starting in fourth grade for using the wrong pronouns.

Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) 

• LCPS’ policy instructs, “[s]tudents should be allowed to use [restrooms and locker rooms] that correspond to their consistently asserted gender identity.” Specifically, Regulation 8040 defines “[g]ender identity” as “[a] person’s internal sense of their own identity as a boy/man, girl/woman, another gender, no gender, or outside the male/female binary. Gender identity is an innate part of a person’s identity and can be the same or different from the sex they were assigned at birth.”
• In May 2025, Governor Youngkin and Attorney General Miyares announced an investigation into LCPS over their decision to investigate three male students who complained about the presence of a biological female in the boys’ locker room. Reports indicate the female student, who identifies as male, used her cell phone to record the male students in the locker room.
• In 2022, an LCPS student was found guilty of sexually assaulting two female classmates at two separate schools (6 months apart) while wearing a skirt. Two senior LCPS officials were indicted on charges related to attempts to cover up the two sexual assaults.

Prince William County Public Schools (PWCS)

• PWCS Regulation 738-5 mandates that “[a]ll students shall have access to facilities (e.g., restrooms and locker rooms) that correspond to their gender identity.” Regulation 738-5 further defines “transgender” as “a person whose gender identity is different from the sex assigned at birth…[t]here is a wide range of gender identities in addition to transgender male and transgender female, such as nonbinary.”

Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) 

• ACPS’ “Nondiscrimination in Education” policy “provides access for all students to facilities, such as restrooms and locker rooms, that correspond to a student’s gender identity.” If a student is uncomfortable sharing intimate facilities with someone of the opposite sex, they can access a “single user” facility provided they “minimize lost instructional time.”

Read More: https://governor.virginia.gov/newsroom/news-releases/2025/july/name-1054024-en.html