Jeffco is caught between Colorado law and Title IX with $55 million at stake

By Matt Kyle | The Denver Gazette

A new claim that a transgender athlete took a spot on a girls’ sports team has once more put Jeffco Public Schools at the center of a national debate and left the district stuck between federal and Colorado laws.

Parents have claimed on social media that the district allowed a transgender child to participate in a girls’ sport, who went to edge out several girls vying for the same team. The district’s policies — school officials said they are guided by state law — allow team sports participation based on gender identity instead of biological sex.

Under the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act and House Bill 26-1141, it is considered discrimination to prohibit a student from participating in a public school’s programs or activities based on their membership in a protected class, which, as defined by law, extends to gender identity and gender expression.

The Colorado High School Activities Association, which guides athletic policy for public schools in the state, also allows transgender students to participate in sports teams consistent with their gender identity.

Under federal Title IX regulations, however, it’s illegal for transgender women and girls to participate on a female sports team. The conflicting state and federal rules have put the district in a quandary.

The Colorado district is already under scrutiny from the federal government when Tanna Donalson, a Jeffco parent, said her daughter and seven others, all of whom are juniors, were cut from a junior-varsity team in favor of several freshmen, who included the player who is allegedly a transgender individual.

Donalson questioned why parents and students were not told about the player.

In this regard, Jeffco pointed to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Actfaces, which broadly speaking, bar school officials from releasing education records, including any personally identifiable information, without the consent of parents. (The same law requires schools to allow parents to access their children’s education records). 

The district has faced several investigations from the federal government over its policies relating to transgender students.

Earlier this year, the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) alleged that Jeffco violated Title IX by allowing bathroom and overnight accommodation access based on gender identity. Specifically, a female student was assigned to share a bed with a biologically male student who identifies as transgender without notifying the girl or her parents, according to a news release from attorneys representing the family.

The federal government also charged that sports rosters provided by Jeffco showed 61 male students participating on girls’ teams.

In response, Jeffco said that a review of the rosters provided to OCR showed the 61 male students in question were not athletes competing on sports teams but were team mascots, managers and athletic trainers. The district said the federal office did not seek any clarification of those roles listed on data sheets before making public statements and that OCR declined to correct the record.

The federal government has repeatedly threatened to revoke $55 million in funding if the district does not correct its policies. 

Jeffco — which faced budget deficits of tens of millions of dollars over the past few years and is considering asking voters to pass a $135 million tax increase to cover the funding gap — has filed a lawsuit over the federal funding.

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