Education, Justice Departments Launch Special Title IX Team Amid ‘Staggering Volume’ of Complaints

The team will fast-track enforcement to address complaints, particularly those involving women’s sports and gender-based policies in schools.

Lawmakers listen as parents speak about the prospect of their children competing against transgender athletes in school sports at the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City on March 25, 2022. Samuel Metz/AP Photo

The departments of Education and Justice announced on April 4 the formation of a “Title IX Special Investigations Team” to address a “staggering” backlog of sex-based discrimination complaints in education, with a particular focus on cases involving women’s athletics and gender identity policies.

“Today, amid a staggering volume of Title IX complaints, the U.S Department of Education (ED) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announce the ‘Title IX Special Investigations Team’ (SIT) to ensure timely, consistent resolutions to protect students, and especially female athletes, from the pernicious effects of gender ideology in school programs and activities,” they said in a statement.

According to officials, the newly formed team, which includes attorneys and investigators from both departments, is designed to expedite complaint resolutions through a rapid resolution process while aligning investigations more directly with DOJ enforcement protocols.

“Today’s establishment of the Title IX SIT will benefit women and girls across this nation who have been subjected to discrimination and indignity in their educational activities,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “From day one, the Trump administration has prioritized enforcing Title IX to protect female students and athletes.”

McMahon said the Office for Civil Rights has historically taken “months” or “even years” to complete investigations.

“To all the entities that continue to allow men to compete in women’s sports and use women’s intimate facilities: there’s a new sheriff in town,” she said. “We will not allow you to get away with denying women’s civil rights any longer.”

Attorney General Pamela Bondi said the joint effort is meant to ensure that violations involving women’s sports and single-sex spaces are met with full federal enforcement.

“Protecting women and women’s sports is a key priority for this Department of Justice,” Bondi said. “This collaborative effort with the Department of Education will enable our attorneys to take comprehensive action when women’s sports or spaces are threatened and use the full power of the law to remedy any violation of women’s civil rights.”

The announcement follows two executive orders issued earlier this year by President Donald Trump.

One order, titled Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports, directs federal agencies to withhold funding from schools that allow males to participate in women’s sports or access women-only spaces.

A second order, Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism, instructs agencies to adopt sex-based definitions grounded in biological classification and remove any internal policies that recognize gender identity in place of sex.

The creation of the SIT comes amid a backlog of Title IX complaints, many of which, according to advocacy groups such as Parents Defending Education, involve gender identity issues such as the participation of transgender students in girls’ sports and access to bathrooms and locker rooms. That advocacy group praised the launch of the team.

“The Department of Education’s creation of a Title IX Special Investigations Team is extremely welcome news,” Nicole Neily, founder and president of the group, said in a statement. “The last administration not only distorted Title IX’s original intent by broadening the meaning of sex discrimination to include gender identity, but they also failed to address the massive backlog of complaints in this area (including on issues like compelled pronoun usage, the participation of boys in girls’ sports, and the privacy of women-only spaces like locker rooms and bathrooms).”

According to the Department of Education, the SIT will include staff from the Office for Civil Rights, the Office of General Counsel, and the Student Privacy and Protection Office, in addition to DOJ civil rights attorneys. Officials said the team’s work will help restore consistency in enforcement and support what the administration describes as a sex-based interpretation of Title IX.