{"id":14866,"date":"2025-10-24T12:43:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T12:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/14866\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T12:43:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T12:43:25","slug":"trump-administration-orders-nyc-schools-change-policies-for-trans-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/14866\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump administration orders NYC schools change policies for trans students"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter<\/a> to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration demanded that New York City scrap policies designed to protect transgender students by Tuesday evening or it will discontinue millions in grant funding earmarked for magnet schools.<\/p>\n

That would affect about $15 million city officials were expecting from the federal government next fiscal year, which the city has used to support five magnet school programs<\/a>. City officials say they expected $36 million for the remaining duration of the grants. Federal officials said they would not revoke funds that have already been distributed.<\/p>\n

If the city doesn\u2019t change its policies regarding transgender students, \u201cthe Department\u2019s Office for Civil Rights cannot certify they are in compliance with all civil rights laws, and therefore cannot award the magnet school assistance program funding for the next fiscal year,\u201d U.S. Department of Education spokesperson Madison Biedermann wrote in a statement Tuesday morning. <\/p>\n

On Sept. 16, federal education officials first informed the city\u2019s Education Department<\/a> that they were \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d with policies allowing transgender students to participate in sports and use bathrooms and other facilities in accordance with their gender identity.<\/p>\n

On Friday, city officials requested 30 days to consider whether to appeal the Trump administration\u2019s decision to withhold the grant funding, though federal officials appear to have rejected that request in favor of a Tuesday evening deadline. Biedermann said the tight timeline was because the federal government must certify compliance with civil rights laws before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.<\/p>\n

The move represents one of the first known threats from the federal government to withhold funding from New York City\u2019s Education Department in line with its contested interpretation of federal civil rights laws. The Trump administration has mounted an aggressive push to roll back protections for transgender students and has targeted districts in Virginia<\/a>, Colorado<\/a>, and Illinois<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mayor Eric Adams signaled a desire last week to change the city\u2019s policies<\/a> in line with the Trump administration\u2019s wishes. His comments appear to have opened an unusual rift with schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos, who recently said the current rules are consistent with the city\u2019s values.<\/p>\n

Craig Trainor, the U.S. Department of Education\u2019s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, asserted in the Sept. 16 letter that the city\u2019s policies violate Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination at education institutions that receive federal funding. The letter singled out the magnet school grant program and was sent to at least three school districts, including Chicago Public Schools<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Shortly thereafter, Adams began questioning the city\u2019s policies<\/a> in public appearances and interviews, drawing strong rebukes from state education officials and civil rights groups who noted that state law and city guidelines forbid denying access to facilities based on a person\u2019s gender identity.<\/p>\n

Liz Vladeck, the city Education Department\u2019s top lawyer, requested a month to consider challenging the Trump administration\u2019s move holding up the grant funding.<\/p>\n

In a Friday letter<\/a>, she asked the federal Education Department to \u201cplease explain the nexus between your interpretation of Title IX and the [magnet school] grant funding that is being discontinued.\u201d The letter also asserts that the move \u201cdeprived the NYCDOE of the procedures and due process required by federal regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adams has denied that the funding threat motivated his recent comments about bathroom policies and acknowledged he has little power to directly change them because they are enshrined in state law. But he has held to his position.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what parent of a little girl would be comfortable with a boy walking into the shower where their baby is,\u201d he said in a Monday interview on PIX11<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m just not going to support that.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Adams did not respond to a question about what showers the mayor was referring to, or if there were any examples of the city\u2019s policies for transgender students causing problems in schools.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has reportedly considered offering Adams a job<\/a> in a bid to get him out of the mayoral race to help former Gov. Andrew Cuomo defeat Zohran Mamdani, a Queens assemblyman and the current frontrunner. A City Hall spokesperson previously denied that Adams\u2019 new interest in reconsidering the city\u2019s policies was related to a potential job in the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

Aviles-Ramos, the schools chancellor who was appointed by Adams, has suggested city policies would not change, a rare instance of the schools chief diverging from the mayor\u2019s messaging.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo date, you know, those policies remain in place, and we\u2019re going to continue to uphold them as part of our values here in New York City Public Schools,\u201d Aviles-Ramos said during a recent appearance on the Max Politics podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

City Hall and Education Department spokespeople denied there was any rift between the mayor and chancellor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithholding funding that benefits all students \u2014 simply because of a specific policy we have no power to change \u2014 is unwarranted and wrong,\u201d Kayla Mamelak Altus, an Adams spokesperson, wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Mayor Adams may not agree with every rule or policy, we will always stand up to protect critical resources for our city\u2019s 1 million students. On this issue, the mayor and chancellor are fully aligned: we must follow the law, support our students\u2019 identities, and keep them safe at all times.\u201d<\/p>\n

City officials did not indicate how they plan to respond to the Trump administration\u2019s latest demand that they change their policies by Tuesday evening. <\/p>\n

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex atazimmerman@chalkbeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[10957,10958,9433,10152,10959,10960,10961,10962,10963,9,10168,56,63,65,64,10964,10965,10176],"class_list":["post-14866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-ceiling","tag-convenience","tag-day","tag-empty","tag-faucet","tag-flooring","tag-in-a-row","tag-indoors","tag-interior","tag-new-york","tag-no-people","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-public-restroom","tag-sink","tag-window"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}