The federal government has found that the Maine Department of Education violated federal civil rights law for allowing transgender girls to compete on girls’ sports teams only four days after opening an investigation. Federal investigators interviewed no state officials before reaching that finding, according to the Maine attorney general’s office.
On Feb. 25, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a notice of violation against the Maine Department of Education for violating Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools, in what appears to be an escalation by the Trump administration to force states to ban transgender girls from girls’ sports even when their own laws allow it.
The Maine Department of Education, the state agency overseeing the primary and secondary education system, is violating Title IX by denying female student athletes “an equal opportunity” to participate in athletics “by allowing male athletes to compete against female athletes in current and future athletic events,” the U.S. DHHS determined, according to a copy of a notice obtained by the Bangor Daily News.
The notice was emailed to the general inbox of the Maine attorney general, according to a copy of the email. It followed notification from the U.S. DHHS four days prior, on Feb. 21, that the federal agency was investigating both the Maine Department of Education and the University of Maine System. (The university system, however, is not mentioned in the letter announcing the findings of violation.)
It appears that the U.S. DHHS Office for Civil Rights did not interview or send questions to Maine prior to issuing its finding that the education department violated Title IX.
“[W]e have not been asked any questions nor involved in any investigatory activities prior to the receipt of the determination letter,” wrote Danna Hayes, a spokesperson with the Office of the Maine Attorney General, in response to a request for written communications between the federal government and the Maine Department of Education.
Hayes said it is not clear what the violation finding might mean for Maine. The U.S. DHHS has not actually cut any funding to the Maine Department of Education as a result of the determination of violation.
“No action has been taken as of yet,” she said.
President Donald Trump has previously said he would not give Maine “any federal funding — none whatsoever” because of its inclusion of transgender athletes. He was responding to a Republican state lawmaker’s Facebook post last month that singled out a transgender athlete at Greely High School in Cumberland and drew outrage and media attention from across the country. Trump signed an executive order a couple weeks after his inauguration saying he would withhold federal funds from educational programs that allow transgender girls and women to compete in girls’ and women’s sports.
Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey has said terminating federal funding would be illegal. A day after Trump’s threat, on Feb. 21, Gov. Janet Mills told the president she would “see you in court” during a high-profile exchange at a White House event.
Multiple federal agencies then began targeting Maine with investigations. That day, the U.S. Department of Education said it was investigating the Maine Department of Education and SAD 51, the Greely school district, for allegedly violating Title IX.
Also on Feb. 21, the U.S. DHHS said it would investigate the Maine Department of Education and the University of Maine System. The next day, on Feb. 22, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it was investigating the University of Maine.
Spokespeople with the Maine Department of Education and the governor’s office did not immediately respond to requests for an interview about the findings of the U.S. DHHS investigation.
The determination letter issued by the U.S. DHHS does not state what, if any, action will be taken, but it points out that the Maine Department of Education received $703,086 from three different U.S. DHHS sources in 2024. Hayes said the sum is incorrect. The education department received $186,955.
The notice from the federal government included seven findings of fact before outlining the rationale for its determination. It cited comments from the executive director of the Maine Principals’ Association, which runs school athletic competitions, stating that Trump’s executive order barring transgender gender girls from competing in girls’ sports is in conflict with the Maine Human Rights Act. The association has said it will continue to allow transgender athletes to compete on the teams aligned with their gender identity in accordance with state law.
The letter from the U.S. DHHS then pointed to two examples of transgender girls in Maine competing against other girls, and linked to two press reports about students from Greely High School and the Maine Coast Waldorf School in Freeport. One of the articles it used as evidence in its investigation was published in a conservative online news outlet that describes itself as “exposing the destructive nature of ‘woke’ activism” and as an “antidote to the mainstream sports media that often serves an elite, left-leaning minority instead of the American sports fan.”
The federal notice asserted that the Maine Principal Association’s policy constitutes a violation of federal law.
“[T]he provision of additional opportunity for individuals who assert a ‘gender identity’ different from their sex, constitutes discrimination on the basis of gender identity, against students who identify as their sex,” it states.
Earlier on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt erroneously told reporters during a press briefing that the federal government was suing Maine over violating Title IX.
