Denver Public Schools have all-gender bathrooms and the U.S. Department of Education does not like it.

The federal government informed the district on Thursday that it was in violation of Title IX, the federal law prohibiting discrimination based on sex, by creating all-gender bathrooms. The district also allowed students to access restrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity rather than their biological sex.

The Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education opened an investigation into the district in January, specifically East High School after it converted a restroom for girls into an all-gender bathroom. The district had said the change violated federal policy under Title IX.

In response, the federal government sent a resolution agreement to Denver Public Schools with conditions the district must meet within 10 days in order to avoid enforcement.

“Restrooms should never be sex-segregated.”

The Education Department says you can’t let students into bathrooms that match their gender identity.

The district first re-designed a girls bathroom on East High School into an all-gender facility, with a boys bathroom located on the same floor. The district has defended the change, noting it followed a student-led process. Officials also said the new all-gender restroom features 12-foot-tall partitions around toilets.

Federal officials have pushed back on the district’s plan, arguing the change violated Title IX standards. In a letter to the district on Thursday, the Office for Civil Rights Acting Assistant Secretary Craig Trainor said the policy decision “effectively denied students equal access to these facilities” and “created a ‘hostile environment.’”

In an effort to be fair, the district also created a second all-gender bathroom on the same floor. District officials have also pointed out that students still have the option to access traditional male and female bathrooms, as well as single-stall, all-gender restrooms.

The resolution agreement sent to Denver Public Schools would require the district to:

Resegregate all all-gender, multi-stall restrooms into sex-segregated facilities;

Revise its bathroom access policies to ensure students cannot access restrooms or locker rooms based on gender identity and are instead required to use facilities that match their biological sex;

Define “male” and “female” in a “biology-based way” in all policies, practices, and procedures related to Title IX;

Issue a statement to schools, called a memorandum of understanding, that restrooms must “maintain student privacy, dignity, and safety” and be “comparably accessible” to both sexes.

Denver has 10 days to respond to the resolution, after which the department can enforce the measures, including loss of federal funds.

“Endangering Privacy, Safety”

In the statement, Trainor said the district’s decision “endangered the privacy, safety, and dignity of students.”

“The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights today sent a Resolution Agreement to Denver Public Schools (DPS), notifying the district that it violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and its implementing regulations by,” Trainor said.

“The Trump Administration will work tirelessly to hold school districts accountable when their ideological obsessions and pet policies harm students,” he continued. “School districts across the country are free to embrace whatever anti-science gender ideology they want, but they are not free to use taxpayer funds to endanger their students in clear violation of Title IX.”

District: It Was Student-Led

Denver Public Schools have defended its policies, saying the move was student-led. Officials said the new bathrooms were designed in order to meet the needs of its students while also upholding privacy and security standards.

The district has not publicly responded to the latest finding from the federal government but has said students still have a variety of bathrooms to choose from. In addition to traditional male and female bathrooms, students also have single-stall, all-gender restrooms available to them if they prefer.

Battle Over Gender Policies

The latest battle over gender identity policies in schools comes as states and Congress have taken aim at the issue. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would ban transgender girls from playing on sports teams that do not match their biological sex.

Republicans in Congress have also proposed laws that would restrict transgender students from using bathrooms and playing on sports teams that align with their gender identity.

The Education Department has pursued numerous investigations into gender policies on campuses, including in schools and universities. Just this week, the federal government said George Mason University was operating unlawful diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs that violated Title VI.