The Education Department and Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Friday a collaboration to create the “Title IX Special Investigations Team."
The departments said the team will “streamline” Title IX investigations as the number of cases is increasing.
The announcement said the goal of the team is “timely, consistent resolutions to protect students, and especially female athletes, from the pernicious effects of gender ideology in school programs and activities.”
The collaboration comes after the president signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from competing on the sports teams they choose.
“Protecting women and women’s sports is a key priority for this Department of Justice,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said. “This collaborative effort with the Department of Education will enable our attorneys to take comprehensive action when women’s sports or spaces are threatened and use the full power of the law to remedy any violation of women’s civil rights.”
The team will be made up of investigators and attorneys from the Office for Civil Rights at the Education Department, case workers from the Student Privacy and Protection Office, a Federal Student Aid enforcement investigator and attorneys from the civil rights division at the DOJ.
The University of Pennsylvania and the University of Maine have both had funding pauses allegedly due to policies around transgender athletes. Both schools say they follow NCAA rules that no longer allow transgender athletes to compete.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture froze federal funds for some Maine education programs over the state’s refusal to change its policies around transgender athletes.
The targeting of Maine came after the governor of the state and President Trump got into a spat over his executive order.
