RICHMOND, Va. — Five Northern Virginia school divisions are under fire after the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) found that their gender identity policies violate Title IX protections meant to ensure equal rights for students, particularly girls, in federally funded education programs.

Fairfax County, Loudoun County, Arlington County, Prince William County, and the City of Alexandria are accused of allowing students to access restrooms and participate in sports based on gender identity rather than biological sex. According to federal findings, the policies resulted in violations of student privacy, safety, and dignity—specifically affecting female students who reported discomfort, fear, and in some cases, inappropriate behavior in school locker rooms and bathrooms.

“These school divisions have been violating federal law, deliberately neglecting their responsibility to protect students’ safety, privacy and dignity, and ignoring parents’ rights,” Governor Glenn Youngkin said in a statement. “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.”

Youngkin added that his office previously requested an investigation into Loudoun County Public Schools after reports surfaced of school officials disciplining boys who objected to a biological female being present in the boys’ locker room.

Attorney General Jason Miyares said he had fought to stop the Biden Administration’s attempts to reinterpret Title IX in a way that, in his view, undermines protections for girls in schools.

“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,” Miyares said. “Thankfully, we won that battle in court… Our daughters should have the same opportunities as our sons.”

Federal violations and policy findings

The OCR report indicates that students in the affected school divisions often avoid using restrooms altogether due to anxiety or fear caused by mixed-sex access policies. In some cases, girls reported seeing male students watch them undress or touch others inappropriately in locker rooms.

The U.S. Department of Education has offered each school division a chance to sign a Resolution Agreement within 10 days. If they refuse, the Department may escalate the issue to the U.S. Department of Justice for enforcement.

The proposed agreement mandates the following:

Rescind policies that allow access to bathrooms and locker rooms based on gender identity instead of sex; Direct schools to ensure all future policies comply with Title IX by maintaining sex-based separation in intimate facilities and sports; Define “male” and “female” according to biological sex in all Title IX-related policies.

Below is a breakdown of the specific violations and policy issues identified in each school division:

Arlington Public Schools (APS)

APS’s “Transgender Students in Schools” policy mandated access to facilities aligned with gender identity. In January 2025, a Tier III male sex offender reportedly used the girls’ locker room for months, exposing himself to a 9-year-old girl. Despite parental complaints, APS continued to allow the offender to use the facility.

Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

FCPS Regulation 2603.2 guaranteed transgender students access to facilities matching their gender identity and prohibited requiring them to use private or single-occupancy alternatives. The division also:

Instructed staff not to seek parental consent when a student requested gender-related changes. Trained teachers to affirm students’ gender identity choices without parental involvement. Created a student code of conduct permitting suspension for misgendering, starting in fourth grade. Was sued by a Catholic student represented by America First Legal for alleged violations of her religious beliefs regarding pronouns and bathroom use.

Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS)

LCPS Regulation 8040 instructed schools to allow restroom and locker room access based on “consistently asserted gender identity,” including identities outside the male/female binary.

In May 2025, three male students who raised concerns about a biological female using the boys’ locker room were themselves investigated. Reports indicated the female student recorded male students in the locker room with her phone. In a separate 2022 case, a male student wearing a skirt sexually assaulted two female classmates at two different schools. LCPS officials were later indicted for allegedly covering up the incidents.

Prince William County Public Schools (PWCS)

PWCS Regulation 738-5 allows access to facilities based on gender identity and affirms a broad spectrum of gender identities. There is no requirement for sex-based separation in locker rooms or restrooms.

Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS)

ACPS policy allows students to use facilities that align with their gender identity. Students uncomfortable with this arrangement may use a “single-user” facility, but are instructed to “minimize lost instructional time,” effectively discouraging alternative options.

Critics of these policies, including parents and civil rights advocates, argue that the original intent of Title IX was to protect women’s rights in education, not to erase biological distinctions that affect safety and fairness in sports and private spaces.

The OCR’s actions signal a shift in how the federal government is interpreting Title IX enforcement—aligning, at least in this instance, with efforts by Virginia’s current administration to reassert sex-based policies in public education.

Information from a release. Edited by Dan McDermott.