OSPI has directed Washington’s 295 public school districts to ignore President Donald Trump’s directive that bars transgender athletes from competing in sports outside their biological sex

Carleen Johnson
The Center Square Washington

State Superintendent Chris Reykdal is very concerned about potential education cuts from the federal government, but says the Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction is not changing course despite threats from the Trump administration, including a federal investigation into OSPI over implementing a gender inclusion policy that conflicts with federal law.

“Things are complicated in the education world, as you all know,” Reykdal told members of the Washington State Board of Education on the final day of a three-day gathering at the Chehalis Tribal Community Center.

As reported by The Center Square, OSPI is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Justice for alleged violations of Title IX. Specifically, the state is suspected of violating federal laws by allowing transgender students to play sports and use school locker rooms.

The Trump administration’s stance on transgender athletes competing in girls’ and women’s sports is that it violates Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education.

“We continue to see the U.S. Department of Education make this complicated transformation at the direction of the White House, which is to get smaller immediately through lots of cuts but simultaneously get bigger in terms of their incursion into states’ rights,” Reykdal said.

OSPI has directed Washington’s 295 public school districts to ignore President Donald Trump’s directive that bars transgender athletes from competing in sports outside their biological sex.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced that the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation are in clear violation of Title IX for discrimination against women and girls on the basis of sex.

“Lots of us are saying the president’s will is not law, and his executive orders don’t have the power of law. So, California just got a ruling yesterday … but California will not sign any agreement, and we talked with them yesterday,” Reykdal said. “They’re the latest example of a state that’s saying, you just [have] to change the federal law and we’ll comply, [or you have] got to get a federal court to say that we’re out of bounds and we’ll comply, or you’ve got to get our legislature to change our laws and we’ll comply. That’s where California is now. It’s exactly where we’re going to be as one of the three states under investigation for Title IX violations.”

Reykdal noted the Washington State Legislature just “doubled down” on protecting transgender athletes.

“They passed legislation this year that said we affirm that we see gender protections as paramount, right along with other protected classes,” he explained, noting he’s aware there are districts in Washington where school boards are willfully out of compliance.

“We’ll be continuing to pursue those investigations as we move forward,” Reykdal said.

Reykdal warned the board that federal-level cuts could soon impact education funding in Washington. 

Reykdal explained that OSPI is required to sign documents affirming compliance with federal laws, but he has been unwilling to do so.

“We disagree with some of those checkboxes when they say you will follow all the executive orders of the president,” he said. “We think some of those are unlawful, so we did not sign those unconditionally. We put a little asterisk on those, and we said we reserve our right based on state law and who we are in Washington. So it’s a delicate dance. Fifty states are kind of approaching it 50 different ways, depending on their relationship [with the Trump administration].”

Reykdal noted that about $56 million is on the line that is supposed to be forward-funded by Congress.

“In other words, they’ve already funded it for the next year, but it looks like there’s an effort in D.C. right now to use processes to pull that money back starting Oct. 1, which is horrible for our school districts,” Reykdal observed, nothing districts have already established budget for the 2025-26 school year based on those federal dollars.

When asked about education funding impacts related to this week’s new revenue forecast, which estimates tax collections will be hundreds of millions of dollars less than what lawmakers anticipated when they passed budget bills earlier this year, Reykdal said he’s not terribly concerned.

“It’s a big deal, but it’s not catastrophic … there’s a battle happening out there in the common discussion of doomsday versus just managing tough times,” he said. “And right now, we’re managing tough times, but we still have growing revenue.”

Reykdal said he anticipates there will be some targeted reductions.

Following Reykdal’s presentation, one of the board members asked about delaying compliance with House Bill 1296, passed by the Legislature this session, suggesting many rural districts are nervous about losing federal education funding if they comply with parts of the law that promote gender expansive ideologies.

HB 1296 expands protections for student rights and privacy, but critics argue it essentially rewrote Initiative 2081, passed by the Legislature in 2024, known as the parents’ bill of rights.

Ron Mabry, school board director and board member from Kennewick, asked about the possibility of a delay in complying with the new law.

Kennewick is one of the school districts pushing back on OSPI over the directive to allow boys to compete in girls’ sports and use girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms. 

“No. How’s that?” quipped Reykdal. “The law is the law.”

This report was first published by The Center Square Washington.