The California Department of Education refuses to recognize an alleged Title IX violation over transgender athletes and says it will not sign a resolution agreement with the U.S. Department of Education.
The CDE wrote to the U.S. Department of Education in an email on Monday, politely declining the offer to sign the Trump administration’s Proposed Resolution Agreement.
“The California Department of Education received the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights’ June 25, 2025 Letter of Finding and Proposed Resolution Agreement in the above referenced OCR-matter,” the CDE email stated. “The CDE respectfully disagrees with OCR’s analysis, and it will not sign the Proposed Resolution Agreement.”
The Resolution Agreement requires a number of actions, including that the “CDE will require all Recipients, including CIF, to restore to female athletes all Individual records, titles, and awards misappropriated by male athletes competing in female competitions. To each female athlete to whom an individual recognition is restored, CDE will send a personalized letter apologizing on behalf of the state of California for allowing her educational experience to be marred by sex discrimination.”
U.S. Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-California, posted the email exchange on X Monday morning, calling the CDE’s decision illegal and reckless.
“California is refusing to change its policy of forcing girls to compete against biological males. The Education Department says it ‘disagrees’ with the federal civil rights laws,” Kiley wrote. “This reckless and illegal decision puts our state’s federal funding at risk.”
Yet this action should come as no surprise since Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office called the letter and proposed resolution agreement “not a serious legal document.”
Other advocacy groups demanded the CDE and CIF to reject the ED’s proposal agreement.
“The U.S. Department of Education’s ‘findings’ are a dangerous distortion of Title IX and a direct attack on transgender youth in California,” Equality California said in a press release.
