Colorado’s second-largest school district has refused to comply with transphobic demands from the Trump administration’s Department of Education (ED). The Jefferson County Public Schools district (Jeffco) — which has about 75,000 students and 14,000 staff members in 145 schools — is just one of a growing number of educational institutions refusing to bow down to Trump’s transphobic threats.

Last Friday, Trump’s ED demanded that the school district stop recognizing trans students’ gender identities and ban them from accessing the correct restrooms, sports teams, overnight accommodations, and other associated rights. The ED said district policies violate Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex-based educational discrimination, because they allegedly deny cisgender female students their rights to safety, dignity, and equal access to school programs, CBS News reported.

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The ED investigated the district after the anti-LGBTQ+ local parents’ rights group, Jeffco Kids First, reported it to the ED. The group claimed that 61 roster positions on girls’ sports teams are occupied by students who were assigned a male gender at birth. The group also claimed that cis female students felt nervous changing their clothes around a trans female high schooler during an overnight trip.

Z Williams, a district parent and trans rights activist who is co-director of Bread and Roses Legal Center, said they suspected that the parents’ rights group fabricated the numbers.

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“What the Department of Education is trying to use is trans children as a sort of flame igniter for a broader political issue that really doesn’t exist,” Williams told the aforementioned news outlet.

Nevertheless, the ED gave the district 10 days to revoke its trans-inclusive policies and to issue a public statement saying that it would adopt the Trump administration’s transphobic definition of biological sex or face possible enforcement action, including a loss of federal education funding.

However, the district refused the ED’s demands. In its refusal, the district said the ED’s demands conflicted with state law and district policies.

“Providing equal access to programs and services for all Jeffco students, including those who are transgender, does not violate Title IX,” the district wrote. “The Department’s interpretation has no basis in the Title IX regulations and is not supported by any binding court decision. It conflicts with a recent U.S. District of Colorado decision which considered the same Jeffco policies. Prior federal administrations have taken the direct opposite view — that Title IX protects transgender students’ access to school programs and facilities.”

Jeffco wrote that its policies align with the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, prior federal guidance on Title IX, and the policies of the Colorado High School Activities Association. The district also noted that, since 2013, the Colorado Civil Rights Commission has interpreted state law to require school districts to accommodate students based on their gender identity.

Transgender journalist Erin Reed reported that the district was the first in the state to pass a policy protecting trans students. Reed also noted that Colorado’s legislature passed S.B. 296, which requires schools to investigate reports of anti-trans discrimination; H.B. 1039, which requires school workers to address students by their chosen names; and the Kelly Loving Act, which requires schools to allow students to follow any dress codes regardless of gender.

Reed further noted that Denver Public Schools, five Virginia school districts, and Chicago Public Schools have all refused to comply with similar threats from Trump’s ED, with no repercussions. New York City Public Schools also sued after the ED withheld $47 million in magnet school funding over trans-inclusive school policies.

In November, Colorado voters will weigh in on a statewide anti-trans sports ban. As of early 2026, 27 states have enacted laws or regulations banning trans girls and women from participating in school sports teams that align with their gender identity. 

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