Attorney General Ken Paxton Advises Texas Schools on the Application of Title IX After Recent Legal Victory
AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an advisory to Texas schools detailing the application of Title IX in light of a recent legal victory that stopped an attempt to force radical “transgender” policies onto state schools in violation of existing law.
On June 11, Attorney General Paxton successfully stopped the implementation of rules by the Biden Administration’s Department of Education that would have forced Texas schools to adopt radical “transgender” policies in violation of state and federal law. The federal court found that “to allow [the Biden Administration’s] unlawful action to stand would be to functionally rewrite Title IX in a way that shockingly transforms American education and usurps a major question from Congress. That is not how our democratic system functions.”
Because the court struck down the Biden Administration’s unlawful rule, Texas schools do not and should not adopt or enforce any of the policy changes contained in the rule. Texas students are now safe from losing their Title IX protections and the school districts are protected from the threat of the loss of federal funding.
In the new legal advisory, Attorney General Ken Paxton explained: “This ruling covers all Texas school districts and ensures no district in our State will have to comply with the Biden Administration’s illegitimate interpretation that Title IX includes gender-identity requirements, including allowing men into women’s restrooms, locker rooms, sports teams, or requiring students or teachers to use pronouns based on gender identity rather than biological sex. And if any Texas school district adopts a policy or procedure that conflicts with or contravenes state law, then I will pursue every remedy available to protect students and teachers from these illegal and radical policies.”
Texas won a major victory against the Biden Administration and the Department of Education (“DOE”), stopping their unlawful attempt to rewrite Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 to force Texas schools to adopt radical “transgender” policies in violation of state and federal law. These radical policies would have enabled the widespread abuse of children. 1 Because of Texas’s victory, , students are now safer from abusers and safe from the erasure of the protections enshrined in Title IX, and school districts are protected from illegal threats of lost federal funding.
Texas school districts should not follow or implement either the guidance documents issued by the DOE or the DOE’srelated underlying interpretation of Title IX. Title IX is a federal civil rights law that protects women through prohibitions on sex-based discrimination in educational programs that receive federal money.Congress’s purpose in passing Title IX was to address concerns about discrimination against women in education. See North Haven Bd. of Educ. v. Bell, 456 U.S. 512, 523–24 (1982). “Title IX prohibits sex discrimination by recipients of federal education funding.” Jackson v. Birmingham Bd. of Educ., 544 U.S. 167, 173 (2005). The statute provides that “[n]o person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” 20 U.S.C. § 1681(a). Nothing in the text of Title IX supports the DOE’s interpretation.
Our State’s law is clear. Texas parents have a fundamental right to make decisions concerning the care, custody, and control of their child. Public schools may not withhold critical information about a child from that child’s parents, and public schools must obtain parental written consent prior to exposing children to sexual topics. Texas law does not provide for any confidentiality in a teacher-student relationship or provide any basis for educators to withhold information from parents under the guise of “confidentiality.” In other words, secret relationships between public school teacher and students are not permitted by Texas law, as Texas recognizes that such relationships are a recipe for abuse. To the contrary, teachers owe a duty of candor to parents regarding the topics discussed with their children. And children should not be exposed to members of the opposite sex in private spaces.
Nonetheless, the DOE issued illegal guidance documents that would have removed these protections for women. The illegal guidance was a blatant attempt by the DOE and the Biden Administration to effect radical social change in our Nation’s schools by purporting to “interpret” Title IX to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in clear conflict with the text and intent of Title IX. So-called “gender modification” is abuse, and it is one of the worst types of child abuse when it is imposed on children.
I stepped in to protect Texans and sued the DOE to stop the unlawful regulatory requirements.3 On June 11, 2024, Texas won.4 The court concluded that applying the DOE’s interpretation of Title IX would not only deny students the “dignity and freedom of bodily privacy” but would also “rob women and girls of meaningful access to education.”5 And through the court’s reassurance that Title IX does in fact rely on biological sex, Title IX’s protections are secure. Texas has prevailed not only on behalf of Texas but on behalf of the entire Nation.
This ruling covers all Texas school districts and ensures no district in our State will have to comply with the Biden Administration’s illegitimate interpretation that Title IX includes gender-identity requirements, including allowing men into women’s restrooms, locker rooms, sports teams, or requiring students or teachers to use pronouns based on gender identity rather than biological sex. And if any Texas school district adopts a policy or procedure that conflicts with or contravenes state law, then I will pursue every remedy available to protect students and teachers from these illegal and radical policies.
