The U.S. Department of Education (ED) has escalated its Title IX investigation into the Maine Department of Education (MDOE) by referring the case to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for enforcement action. Additionally, ED will launch an administrative proceeding to determine whether MDOE’s federal K-12 funding should be terminated.
These steps follow MDOE’s persistent refusal to conform to Title IX regulations. Previously, ED issued a noncompliance finding on March 19 and followed up with a warning letter on March 31.
"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," said Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor. "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. Governor Mills would have done well to adhere to the wisdom embedded in the old idiom—be careful what you wish for. Now she will see the Trump Administration in court."
The actions stem from an investigation by ED’s Office for Civil Rights, which concluded that MDOE has policies violating Title IX. These include allowing males to participate in female sports and enter spaces traditionally reserved for women. MDOE rejected a suggested Resolution Agreement aimed at resolving these violations.
Title IX, enacted in the Education Amendments of 1972, bars sex-based discrimination in educational programs or activities receiving federal aid. President Trump’s Executive Order, known as "Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports," is aligned with Title IX, aiming to protect female athletes from the necessity to compete against or share intimate spaces with males.
