Education Department refers Maine funding to DOJ over transgender athletes

The Department of Education on Friday asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Maine schools violated Title IX by allowing transgender students to participate in girls’ sports. 

The referral comes after Maine failed to come to a resolution with the administration over the alleged violations, after the state refused to commit to complying with President Donald Trump's executive order on transgender athletes competing against biological women and girls.

The Education Department also said that it would start administrative proceedings to determine whether it needs to pull federal funding for the state's K-12 programs, according to The Hill. 

“The Department has given Maine every opportunity to come into compliance with Title IX, but the state’s leaders have stubbornly refused to do so, choosing instead to prioritize an extremist ideological agenda over their students’ safety, privacy, and dignity,” Craig Trainor, acting assistant Education secretary for civil rights, said in a statement.

“The Maine Department of Education will now have to defend its discriminatory practices before a Department administrative law judge and in a federal court against the Justice Department,” he added. 

The directives come after the department's civil rights office concluded its own probe into an alleged Title IX violation in March, and determined that the state had violated federal law. It gave the state until the end of March to comply. 

The Department of Agriculture has already halted its funding for the state over the Title IX violation.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.