The United States Department of Education rescinded the Biden administration’s Title IX protections, which included protections on sex-based discrimination.
In 2024, the Biden administration expanded the regulations for Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 to cover “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.”
The Biden administration wrote the additional guidelines to prevent discrimination against transgender athletes and changed how sexual misconduct cases are handled.
The original expansion was set in place during the Biden era in August 2024 and temporarily placed on hold two days after it took effect while a judge determined its legality.
The investigation into the legality continued through the remainder of the year, and in January 2025, through the court case State of Tennessee v. Cardona, a federal judge struck down the Biden administration’s expanded definition, nullifying any added protections their interpretation of Title IX granted.
As a result, the Trump administration began informally enforcing the previous Title IX regulations of the 2020 Trump administration.
The Department of Education announced they reinstated Title IX regulations of the first Trump administration, according to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. These regulations are effective as of Sept. 29.
”We will continue to relentlessly champion equal opportunity for all Americans and hold accountable any school or college that violates the rights, privacy, or athletic opportunities of our women and girls,” McMahon wrote in a press release.
With the removal of federal guidance on protections for LGBTQ+ students, the policies are at the discretion of individual states and school institutions.
The California Education Code, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in schools, remains in place.
Here are the four rescinded amendments:
One rescinded amendment required schools to follow fair and unbiased investigations in sexual discrimination cases. Investigators were required to review all facts regardless if they prove innocence or guilt. Whether a source in a case is a witness, respondent or complainant investigators were required to remain neutral and not let the source’s position determine the outcome.
The second rescinded amendment required nondiscrimination on the basis of sex or disabilities in federally financially assisted programs. This included state education agencies such as schools or universities and other training programs.
The third rescinded amendment is discrimination on the basis of sex in athletics, whether intramural, interscholastic or intercollegiate.
The last rescinded amendment required an agency or person, who finds that discrimination on the basis of sex has taken place within their institution, to take proper action to handle the violation.Â
These regulations changes do not affect current policy enforcement, but instead rewrite the language of the Code of Federal Regulations to remove “outdated legal protections.”
The largest changes between the Biden and Trump versions of the policy are its effect on transgender athletes in sports and the way schools investigate sexual misconduct.
Under this Title IX policy, the federal government defines “sex” strictly as biological sex assigned at birth. Since Title IX does not protect “gender identity” and “sexual orientation,” transgender athletes may be barred from playing school sports designated for their gender identity.
In the Biden era, Title IX mandated schools to respond to formal complaints of sexual misconduct with court-like hearings.
The rule change allows for schools to choose between two burdens of proof standards when conducting hearings. The first standard only required proof that the misconduct “likely” occurred, and the second, higher standard must have “clear and concise” proof of guilt.