Colorado's Jeffco Public Schools disputes federal Title IX findings, seeks clarification

Jeffco Public Schools is disputing a U.S. Department of Education conclusion that the school district is violating Title IX, asking federal officials for a meeting and more details on their findings as a 30-day deadline for response arrived on Monday.

The department's Office for Civil Rights determined that 61 male students were competing on girls' sports teams in the district — a finding Jeffco says contradicts data it originally submitted to investigators after the OCR began its investigation of Jeffco in June 2025.

"During this review, we requested clarification on several findings that appear to contradict the data we originally provided — discrepancies that directly impact two of the OCR's three proposed actions," the district said in a statement to CBS Colorado.

Jeffco Public Schools said it remains in full compliance with the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act and that its practices are consistent with those of school districts across the state.

The district also disputed the department's suggestion that it is bound by a settlement involving a Colorado Springs-area school district's dispute with the Colorado High School Activities Association over transgender athletes. In that agreement, CHSAA agreed not to sanction school districts, including District 49, for enforcing policies that separate sports teams by biological sex or for forfeiting competitions against teams with transgender athletes — but the settlement applies only to districts that were party to the lawsuit. Jeffco Public Schools was not.

The Trump administration has maintained that Jeffco Public Schools' policies discriminate against female students by denying them equal access to athletic competition.