The U.S. Department of Education has threatened to withhold federal funding from four Kansas school districts for potentially violating federal law with their policies for transgender students.
The department took issue with school policies it said allowed students to participate on the sports teams and use the restrooms that align with their gender identity. The districts also permitted teachers to maintain confidentiality with transgender students about what pronouns and names they use at school, the department alleged.
But in a letter to Kansas’ federal delegation of U.S. representatives and senators, leaders of the Shawnee Mission, Olathe, Topeka and Kansas City, Kansas, school districts said they were not aware of any parent, student or staff who has filed a complaint with the department over those policies.
“Despite the lack of a complaint or any facts which might indicate a violation of current law, the Department has issued numerous data requests to our school districts and made threats to withhold federal funds,” the school districts said.
“We write to solicit any support you can provide as we navigate this investigation.”
The office of Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids said it had asked to be kept apprised of the investigation. Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall’s office encouraged the school districts to take the investigation seriously.
The federal investigation followed a complaint from the Defense of Freedom Institute, a conservative nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. Republican Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach also urged federal officials to investigate.
“The most important duty of K–12 schools is to keep the students in their care safe from harm during the school day,” Kobach wrote in a letter to the U.S. Department of Education.
“Yet, schools across the country, including in the State of Kansas, are ignoring that fundamental obligation in the interest of promoting a virulent ideology that pushes children into a pipeline of ‘social transitioning’ without notifying parents who might object to this process and its potentially lifelong consequences.”
In the letter, Kobach cited the case of a Shawnee Mission North teacher who is suing her school district. The teacher said administrators punished her for, among other things, criticizing the district’s policies for transgender students.
But that lawsuit has been partially dismissed. And the Shawnee Mission School District noted in a news release that letters from the attorney general’s office in 2023 and 2025 had not cited any specific instance where a parent was denied access to information about a transgender or gender-nonconforming student.
Kobach’s office did not respond to a request for comment. The Defense of Freedom Institute said that “to protect individual privacy, we don't always comment on the origins of complaints,” but added that public sentiment backs its goals.
“Public opinion is clear, and so is federal law: Women's sports and spaces are for women only, and schools have no right to keep secrets from parents,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
In 2023, Kansas lawmakers banned transgender girls from playing on girls' sports teams in schools and colleges. The Kansas State High School Activities Association reported that two student athletes in Kansas would be affected by the legislation at the time.
An 'extensive and challenging' request
In an Aug. 22 letter, the U.S. Department of Education made a sweeping list of requests for data from the four Kansas school districts with a two-week deadline to respond.
The department directed districts to the Office for Civil Rights, which handles Title IX complaints. Title IX is a federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded education programs.
The districts are also accused of violating the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act, a law that governs student privacy. The department’s Student Privacy Policy Office manages FERPA complaints.
KCUR obtained copies of the Education Department’s data requests of Olathe Public Schools. The districts said in a letter to federal officials that they had all received nearly identical inquiries.
The 29-item request included the following:
- Any complaints that the school district received alleging “male students” participated in sports “designated for female students.”
- Any complaints that a student or staff member used a “sex-separated restroom, locker room, or changing room, based on ‘gender identity’ or similar terms.”
- Any complaints that a staff member chose not to tell a parent or guardian about “the student’s ‘transgender’ status, ‘gender non-conforming presentation,’ ‘gender identity,’ ‘gender status,’ or preferred pronouns, because of the student’s request or for any other reason.”
The department also asked districts to identify any gender-nonconforming students who participated in sports teams that aligned with their gender identity — an ask that poses serious student privacy concerns, the districts said.
In their letter to Kansas’ federal lawmakers, the four districts called the requests "extensive and challenging.”
The most recent document KCUR reviewed is a Sept. 19 letter from the districts that partially fulfilled the data request. But the districts took issue with some aspects of the inquiry and asked to meet with investigators to find a non-adversarial resolution.
The districts reiterated that they already complied with state law that prohibits transgender students from participating in school sports according to their gender identity.
Further, the districts said the case law is not clear on whether transgender students’ use of particular restrooms or locker rooms is a violation of Title IX.
Finally, the districts denied they had any policy of hiding students’ gender identity from parents.
District counsel maintained throughout the response that they were not aware of any formal complaints made under Title IX policies or FERPA regarding transgender students. The districts formally requested those records — only to be told the wait time would be 185 business days.
“The Department has created a near-impossible situation under which the School Districts must respond to the Data Request without sufficient information,” the districts said in the Sept. 19 letter.
Federal funding threatened
In its news release announcing the investigation, the department warned that school districts could lose federal funding if they are found to violate Title IX or FERPA.
The department also warned in its Aug. 14 letter to districts that it has a “number of enforcement options available” to bring them into compliance with FERPA, including withholding further payments, issuing a cease and desist order and recovering funds.
But it’s unclear which federal funding sources and how much money would be on the line if districts don’t comply. Federal funding makes up 15.6% of district revenue in Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Topeka Public Schools relies on federal dollars to make up 13.8% of its revenue. Federal funding makes up 7.9% in the Shawnee Mission School District and 5.9% in Olathe Public Schools.
“Such an outcome would be devastating for each of our districts, with the most negative impact on our neediest students,” district leaders wrote in their letter to federal lawmakers.
If the Office for Civil Rights decided to disallow federal funding for Kansas school districts, it might not be a simple process.
“This idea that we're going to withhold federal funding if you don't give us this information is completely divorced from the way OCR is mandated to operate,” said Rachel Perera, a fellow in the Brown Center on Education Policy at the left-leaning Brookings Institution.
Perera said the Kansas investigation is the latest in a barrage of unprecedented threats the federal government has brought against K-12 schools and institutions of higher education across the country.
The Department of Education could soon deny millions of dollars in federal funding to school districts in Chicago, New York City and Fairfax, Virginia, for policies surrounding transgender students’ use of locker rooms or restrooms.
“They do have that authority,” Perera said. “But they are also required by law to follow certain processes to ensure that that authority is not abused."
Those processes include an investigation, a chance for districts to respond and the opportunity to appeal a decision to a federal judge, Perera said.
Some school districts have sued to challenge similar threats by the education department. The outcome of those battles, as well as a case before the U.S. Supreme Court on state laws banning transgender women in sports, could affect how things go for Kansas schools.
All of this lawfare, Perera said, is being waged over the heads of parents, students and teachers.
“These investigations are being opened in response to complaints from these national networks of right-wing advocacy groups,” she said.
“They're not coming from the community. They're not coming from parents.”
