Denver Public Schools (DPS) has come under intense federal scrutiny after the U.S. Department of Education determined the district violated Title IX civil rights law by converting girls’ bathrooms into all-gender restrooms and allowing students to use facilities corresponding with their gender identity. The decision, announced on August 28, 2025, marks one of the first high-profile actions under President Donald Trump’s new administration targeting policies that accommodate transgender students in public schools.
The controversy began back in December 2024, when East High School in Denver converted a second-floor multi-stall restroom, previously designated for girls, into an all-gender facility. The change was initiated at the request of students, according to the district, and the bathroom was outfitted with 12-foot-tall partitions to ensure privacy and security. "This restroom serves all students, including those who may feel uncomfortable in gender-specific facilities and aligns with our values of supporting every student," DPS stated earlier this year, as reported by Chalkbeat.
However, the federal Office for Civil Rights (OCR) found that this move left female students on that floor without access to a single-sex restroom, while male students continued to have a boys-only facility. This, the OCR argued, placed an unfair burden on female students, who were then required to seek exclusive restrooms elsewhere in the building. Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in schools, allows for separate facilities on the basis of sex, but requires that such facilities be comparable for both sexes.
In response to concerns about fairness, DPS later converted the boys’ restroom on the same floor into another all-gender facility. Despite this, the OCR concluded that the district remained in violation of Title IX. The office stated that "males are still allowed to invade sensitive female-only facilities," and noted that several complaints had been received from students and parents. One female student reported that when her friend used the all-gender restroom, "boys kept staring at her, looking her up and down, kind of taunting her." She described feeling "very uncomfortable" and that her "privacy and [her] rights has [sic] just been taken away" after male students began using the restroom, according to the office’s findings.
Another complaint focused on a male teacher who frequently entered the restroom to check on things, with requests made for a female teacher to take on that responsibility instead. The OCR also cited concerns about the district’s "Denver Public Schools LGBTQ+ Toolkit," which states that "transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming students have the right to use facilities … that match their gender as consistently expressed at school." According to the OCR, this policy violates Title IX by allowing individuals to use facilities based on gender identity rather than biological sex, thus permitting "males into sensitive female-only spaces (and vice versa)."
The federal investigation into DPS was part of a broader push by the Trump administration to challenge local and state policies that support transgender students. According to The Hechinger Report, about two dozen similar investigations have been launched nationwide, focusing on issues such as bathroom and locker room access and participation in sports. Half of these probes, the report notes, involve disputes over bathroom access in K-12 districts in states like Virginia, Kansas, Washington, and Colorado.
In February 2025, President Trump signed an executive order mandating that the federal government recognize only two biological sexes—male and female—and prohibiting the use of federal funds to promote "gender ideology." The order has had wide-ranging effects, including a June 2025 determination that California’s Department of Education violated civil rights law by allowing transgender girls to compete on girls’ sports teams. Federal officials have also initiated legal actions in Maine and Oregon over similar issues, underscoring the administration’s aggressive stance on what it terms "woke" educational policies.
Announcing the findings in Denver, Craig Trainor, the acting assistant secretary for civil rights, did not mince words. "Denver is free to endorse a self-defeating gender ideology, but it is not free to accept federal taxpayer funds and harm its students in violation of Title IX," Trainor said in a news release, as cited by The Associated Press and Chalkbeat. He further asserted that the district’s actions "created a hostile environment for its students by endangering their safety, privacy, and dignity while denying them access to equal educational activities and opportunities."
The Office for Civil Rights has given DPS 10 days from August 28, 2025, to voluntarily comply with a proposed resolution or face "imminent enforcement action." The agreement would require the district to revert all bathrooms that were converted to all-gender use back to single-sex facilities, rescind any policies or guidance allowing students to use private spaces based on gender identity, and issue a memo to all schools mandating that private and safe bathrooms be equally available to male and female students. Additionally, the district must adopt biology-based definitions for "male" and "female" in all policies and practices related to Title IX.
Denver Public Schools officials, for their part, have said they are reviewing the findings and "determining our next steps." The district has not yet indicated whether it will comply with the federal demands or challenge the findings in court. The situation has left many families and students in limbo, unsure of what changes might be coming to their schools in the weeks ahead.
The legal debate over Title IX’s requirements continues to simmer. Scott Skinner-Thompson, an associate professor of law at the University of Colorado Boulder who specializes in LGBTQ issues, criticized the Trump administration’s interpretation. “Title IX has never required identical facilities. It’s only ever required comparable facilities,” he told Chalkbeat. “Creating an all-gender restroom doesn’t exclude anyone.”
The broader national context is fraught. Supporters of the Trump administration’s approach argue that restricting bathroom and sports team access based on biological sex is necessary to maintain fairness and protect the privacy and safety of female students. Opponents, including many civil rights groups and advocates for transgender youth, view the policy as a targeted attack on already vulnerable students, arguing that it undermines the spirit of inclusion and equal opportunity that Title IX was designed to protect.
As the deadline for compliance approaches, Denver Public Schools faces a difficult choice: reverse course on its inclusive policies or risk losing critical federal funding and facing legal consequences. The outcome could set an important precedent for school districts across the country grappling with how best to support all students while navigating a rapidly shifting legal and political landscape.
For now, the debate in Denver encapsulates a national struggle over gender, identity, and the meaning of equality in American education—one that shows no signs of quieting down anytime soon.
