The Fairfax County School Board voted to sue the Trump administration after the U.S. Department of Education tried to limit access to federal funds in a fight over the division’s rules that let kids use bathrooms and locker rooms according on their gender identification.
At its first meeting of the new school year on Thursday night, the board unanimously agreed to sue the Department of Education.
On Friday, Superintendent Michelle Reid alerted staff and families that federal officials had labeled Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) as “high-risk.” The district claims this means that access to up to $167 million in congressionally approved funds is essentially frozen.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in Alexandria, says that the department’s actions are against the law and the Constitution. FCPS says that its rules follow state and federal law, including Title IX as it is understood by binding appeals-court precedent in the Fourth Circuit. The district claims it told the department to hold off on any sanctions until the courts clear up the legal difficulties, but they haven’t heard back.
The School Board said in a statement, “This lawsuit is an important step in our effort to protect the health and safety of all our students in accordance with state and federal law.” They also said that they want to make sure that hungry children get food and that students can still get access to multilingual, special education, and other necessary services. “We won’t stand for efforts to turn one group of students against another.”
Reid added that the “high-risk” label puts programs that depend on federal money at jeopardy. These programs include food and nutrition services, help for kids with disabilities, services for students from low-income families, multilingual learner programs, and teacher training programs. “These federal funds aren’t just numbers on a spreadsheet; they are important help for our most at-risk children,” she wrote in her update on Friday.
The argument is about whether school districts can have rules on who can use their facilities that are in line with the gender identity of their pupils without breaking federal civil rights laws. FCPS says that the existing Fourth Circuit precedent backs up its approach and that the Education Department went too far by making modifications to those regulations a requirement for getting regular K–12 funding. The district also argues that the department made the division go through difficult reimbursement processes and told state authorities to stop pass-through monies, which made things even worse.
The lawsuit wants the court to throw out the “high-risk” label and tell the government to let people get federal aid again while the case is still going on. FCPS said it is doing this to protect both its legal duties and important services for tens of thousands of children.
In the next few days and weeks, the court’s first decisions will determine what happens next. While the case is being heard, FCPS might ask for emergency help to keep nutrition, special education, and other programs from being interrupted. Depending on how and where these lawsuits are filed, other Northern Virginia divisions could work together or combine their efforts to deal with similar problems.
The district says that for now, its major goal is to make sure that schools run smoothly when the year starts.
Reid added, “With the help of our families, we will continue to work hard to give every student a world-class education where they feel safe, included, and empowered to reach their full potential.”
According to FCPS, the Education Department did not reply right away to the district’s most recent outreach.
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