The U.S. Department of Education said Thursday that Denver Public Schools violated Title IX, federal law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in education, by creating all-gender bathrooms and letting students use bathrooms based on their gender identity rather than their biological sex.

The Office for Civil Rights opened a Title IX investigation into the East High School in January after the district remodeled a female restroom into an all-gender facility.

Department officials said the district’s decision to repurpose a sex-specific restroom in a way that was at odds with federal rules violated Title IX.

Remodel Sparks Investigation

The district converted a female restroom into an all-gender facility while another restroom on the same floor remained a sex-specific facility for males. School officials said students led the effort to remodel the restrooms and that the all-gender facilities had 12-foot-tall partitions around toilets to ensure privacy and security.

The changes were made “consistent with safety, privacy and security considerations for all students and everyone who enters and uses the school’s bathrooms and restrooms,” district officials previously said.

Federal officials disagreed with the district’s position, saying that by not providing comparable facilities for both sexes, the district violated Title IX and denied students “equal access to facilities.”

Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said the district’s actions created a “hostile environment” that “harms and discriminates against students” by failing to treat them equally. A second all-gender restroom was added later on the same floor to mitigate the equity issue, according to the district.

School officials have noted that there are also traditional restrooms for boys and girls as well as single-stall, all-gender restrooms elsewhere in the school.

Education Department Sends Resolution Letter

The Education Department sent the district a proposed resolution that would require the district to meet four conditions within 10 days or face potential enforcement action.

The resolution would require the district to:

Restore all all-gender multi-stall restrooms back to sex-specific restrooms.

Revoke any policies that allowed students to access bathrooms and facilities based on gender identity rather than their biological sex.

Use “biology-based definitions” for “male” and “female” in all policies and practices that fall under Title IX.

Send a memorandum to schools that states bathrooms must protect student privacy, dignity, and safety and must be equally accessible to both sexes.

If the district does not meet those conditions, the department can initiate enforcement action, including referring the district to the Justice Department, which could lead to a cutoff of federal funding.

Federal Officials Say Policies Violate Privacy and Safety

Trainor said in a statement that the decision to remodel the restroom and allow students to use school restrooms based on gender identity rather than sex was a case of a policy “endangering student safety, privacy, and dignity.”

“By failing to treat students equally, DPS [Denver Public Schools] is violating Title IX,” Trainor said.

“Denver is free to embrace 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 added. “The Trump Administration will work relentlessly to hold accountable school districts that harbor the ideological fanatics and policies that sully students’ educational experience with sex discrimination.”

District Says Student Feedback Led to Change

The district has defended its decision, saying it was made in response to student feedback. Officials said the new bathrooms were necessary to address changing student needs and pointed out that students could still use single-stall restrooms if they wanted more privacy.

District officials have not yet commented on the department’s latest action, but in a statement to the news outlet Chalkbeat, they previously said students “continue to have a wide variety of bathroom options” at the school.

At issue is a broader national conversation over gender identity, privacy, and safety in schools. In March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to bar transgender girls from playing on sports teams that did not match their biological sex.

Congressional Republicans have also introduced legislation to ban transgender girls from using school bathrooms or sports teams that align with their gender identity.

The Education Department has been active in pursuing multiple cases involving bathroom and gender policies in schools and higher education. This week, officials said George Mason University engaged in unlawful diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices in violation of Title VI.

Denver Public Schools now has two options: follow the proposed federal resolution or continue to push back on all-gender bathroom policies at the risk of enforcement action and potentially millions of dollars in federal funding.

District officials have 10 days to decide on how to respond to the Education Department’s findings.