President Donald Trump’s Department of Education announced Monday that it had eliminated Biden-era Title IX regulations that expanded protections for students based on sexual orientation and gender identity at federally funded schools and universities.
The action formally rescinds rules adopted under the Biden administration, including provisions that broadened the definition of sexual harassment and increased the number of complaints schools were required to investigate.
“Today’s rulemaking clears the Biden Administration’s illegal rewrite of Title IX from the Code of Federal Regulations and restores the commonsense language promulgated in the first Trump Administration, which we have been enforcing since the first days of the Administration,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement Monday.
“Thanks to today’s action, the published Title IX regulations faithfully reflects court orders and Congressional intent—reducing confusion for parents, students, and educational institutions,” McMahon said.
“We will continue to relentlessly champion equal opportunity for all Americans and hold accountable any school or college that violates the rights, privacy, or athletic opportunities of our women and girls.”
For students, parents and teachers, the announcement is not expected to bring an immediate practical change because the department has been enforcing Trump administration rules since the president returned to office last year.
Enacted in 1972, Title IX is a landmark civil rights law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in any education program or activity that receives federal funding.
The Education Department’s decision restores the Title IX framework used during Trump’s first term. Those regulations adopted a narrower definition of sexual harassment and provided greater due-process protections for people accused of misconduct.
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Biden’s Title IX rules also removed a requirement limiting investigations to incidents that took place on campus. Under those provisions, schools could examine alleged sexual misconduct connected to school-sponsored events and activities, even when the conduct occurred elsewhere.
The Biden-era regulations had already been invalidated after Republican-led states filed immediate legal challenges.
According to an agency fact sheet, litigation over the Biden rules continued, with appeals remaining pending into 2026, the Department of Education said.
After those appeals were ultimately dismissed in August, the administration moved to complete the process by removing the vacated regulations from the Code of Federal Regulations.
The announcement drew criticism from advocates who said the rollback would weaken important federal protections for LGBTQ+ people and survivors of sexual assault.
The decision came one day after a separate civil case prompted New York prosecutors to reopen a criminal investigation into allegations that seven Cornell University fraternity members gang-raped a former student in 2024.
The disturbing allegations involving members of the Chi Phi fraternity have fueled a broader debate among lawmakers, celebrities and social media users over the prevalence of sexual harassment and assault on college campuses.
“We know who will be hurt: women, girls, and others who are vulnerable to sexual harassment, assault and abuse — including LGBTQ+ students,” Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said after the Title IX changes were announced.
“The fact that they’re dropping this rule into place abruptly, without a comment period, denying families, educators, loved ones and the students themselves a say in how they should be treated, shows how little they care about the safety of our students.”