School is more than a learning space; it is a haven for people of all backgrounds to feel equally welcome and prioritized. McLean High School epitomizes this concept—its student body is home to individuals of various sexual orientations, ethnic backgrounds, religions, financial situations and gender identities.

Not long ago, discrimination was pervasive in school settings, prompting Congress to pass the Title IX Act of 1972. The landmark law was signed by President Richard Nixon as part of the Education Amendments, stating that “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

The law initially addressed inequality between boys and girls in academics and sports. Now, Title IX is becoming increasingly relevant to transgender and gender-expansive students. According to an October 2024 study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 40% of transgender students in the U.S. reported being bullied at school.

“Over the years, the whole transgender rights debate has become even more politicized,” at-large school board member Ryan McElveen said. “You have a lot more advocacy in the public sphere on it, primarily pertaining to two things. One is on bathroom access, and the second is sports access.”

In 2015, FCPS became the first Virginia school district to add gender identity to its non-discrimination policy, P1450. After the Virginia attorney general at the time, Mark Herring, gave school boards approval to add sexual orientation and gender identity to their non-discrimination policies, McElveen sponsored the proposal to include protections for transgender students. The proposal passed with a 10-1 vote in May of that year.

“At the time, given that it wasn’t this big of a national debate, it was relatively easy to get approved,” McElveen said. “[The vote] aligned with the party makeup on the board. We were still majority Democratic, but we had two or three Republicans on the board.”

While P1450 lists protections for transgender students as a requirement, FCPS Regulation 2603, adopted on Oct. 9, 2020, outlines what those specific protections are. Those include adhering to students’ chosen names and pronouns, accommodating sports and activities involvement and permitting bathroom and locker room use according to gender identity. The latter has proven to be the most controversial issue. Bathroom and locker room use by transgender students differs on a case-by-case basis, with some individuals choosing to use the bathroom that aligns with their gender identity and others using private facilities, such as single-stall staff bathrooms.

“When we first passed [P1450], there were all sorts of people saying, ‘Oh, you’re going to have men in the women’s bathrooms,’ but we’ve never really had any sort of incident like that occur,” McElveen said. “That was also true of other districts that had preceded us at the time. I remember looking at California districts which had protected gender identity for many years, and they’ve never had any sort of incident like that.”

Regulation 2603 and its subsequent revisions were supported and preceded by state law. In 2020, the state legislature passed the Virginia Values Act, which protects all Virginians from discrimination on the basis of gender identity, defined as “the gender-related identity, appearance, or other gender-related characteristics of an individual, with or without regard to the individual’s designated sex at birth.”

Similar protections were granted by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals when the court decided the case of Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board, compelling local school boards to provide students with access to facilities that correspond with their gender identity.

Yet, in early 2025, the America First Legal Foundation, a conservative advocacy group, filed a Title IX complaint with the federal Department of Education (DOE).
“The America First Legal Foundation often files litigation in these cases,” school board member Robyn Lady said. “They’ve been successful at going out to find people who allow them to bring a lawsuit on their behalf.”

After the complaint, the DOE’s Office for Civil Rights asserted in July that FCPS, along with several other Northern Virginia counties, violated Title IX due to policies on transgender students’ access to bathroom and locker room facilities.

“We feel that [the school districts] have to change these policies,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a press statement. “If they do not comply, it will be forwarded to the Department of Justice. We mean business about this.”

FCPS responded by claiming that these policies act in accordance with Virginia law, as well as legal precedent from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which protects transgender individuals’ ability to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity. Despite this, the DOE has placed FCPS on “high-risk” status, which requires detailed justifications for federal funds. If the DOE finds that these justifications are not sufficient, it could result in financial penalties or the loss of up to $167 million in federal funding.

On Aug. 29, FCPS filed a lawsuit against the federal government at the U.S. District Court level, asserting that the DOE’s interpretation of Title IX and its withholding of funds was unjustifiable. A week afterwards, on Sept. 5, the court denied FCPS’s claims, deciding that only the Court of Federal Claims (CFC), which deals with monetary disputes with the federal government, could rule on the case.

“Because the relief that Plaintiffs seek ultimately requires this Court ’to order the payment of money,’ this Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction,” U.S. District Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr. said in his opinion dismissing FCPS’s case. “The action here is subject to judicial review in the Court of Federal Claims.”
FCPS has appealed the dismissal to the 4th Circuit, requesting that all further action be put on hold until a similar case about transgender rights in the Supreme Court, West Virginia v. B.P.J., is decided. In this case, the central issue is whether federal law, including Title IX, prevents a state from designating school sports teams based on a student’s biological sex over their preferred gender.

“[Withholding funds] is morally just a bad thing to do, and a lot of the claims that the administration has been making pertaining to science have been at best misguided and at worst factually incorrect,” said Alex, the president of McLean Gender and Sexuality Alliance, who asked that their last name not be used for privacy purposes. “[The administration] is generally just trying to provoke a potential response.”

Opponents of the DOE’s stance say that the federal government does not have grounds for accusing FCPS of violating Title IX.
“DOE issued a demand to FCPS that would force us to either break binding court precedent and discriminate against our students or put us at risk of losing up to $167 million in federal funding,” Superintendent Michelle Reid said in a Sept. 25 press release. “FCPS maintains that the DOE’s decision to label the division as “high-risk” and threaten funding is not supported by any identifiable factors or evidence.”

McElveen views complying with the Trump administration’s demands as a regression to the past.

“[It] would essentially mean that we have to discriminate against people based on gender identity,” McElveen said. “It would mean removing gender identity for a nondiscrimination policy and forcing students to use facilities based on the sex they were assigned at birth. Before Fairfax County adopted our non-discrimination policy as it stands today, I don’t think we were ever in a situation where we were forcing students to use the facilities based on their gender assigned at birth. It’s always been on a case-by-case basis.”

Budget in the Balance

Funding cuts to FCPS pose threats to key school programs that support tens of thousands of students. Within the predicted $167 million cut by the federal government, FCPS is set to lose around $61 million for food and nutrition services and $41 million for special education programs. A combined $65 million would be cut from programs such as Title I, Multilingual Learning (ML), teacher training and services for homeless students.
“We’ve been trying to work with the Department of Education and the Department of Justice, and they will accept nothing shy of [reversing] our policies,” Lady said. “When we request a reimbursement from the government, we will be held to a higher scrutiny. Basically what they’re saying is, ‘If you don’t change your gender identity policies, we’re not giving you the money.’”

The county was already experiencing funding issues before the threatened federal cuts, with the FY 2026 budget coming short of the proposed $248 million increase by $129 million. The budget shortfall left FCPS unable to afford the promised 7% teacher raise, which led to the county government receiving backlash from teacher unions. Funding cuts from the federal government will exacerbate these issues.

“I believe we were 40th out of 50 states in how much money our state gives to local schools, and last year, we fell to 41st out of 50,” Lady said. “I feel for every taxpayer in Fairfax County, because the state isn’t doing their part.”

Free and Reduced Meals (FRM) is one of many programs heavily subsidized by the federal government. In total, federal funding makes up nearly 60% of FCPS’s $102 million food and nutrition services budget. For McLean students from lower-income families, FRM has served as a lifeline, providing them free breakfast, lunches and meals during school breaks.
“I’ve had free lunch ever since I started elementary school, and it’s been great. It’s so easy to stress about lunch and how to get food,” junior Entisar Neji said. “Food is a basic human right, and to use it as a way to bargain between these federal and local governments is cruel and disrespectful to students.”

In recent years, more FCPS students have been qualifying for FRM, with the FY 2025 budget issuing a $5.9 million increase to match the rising number of students who are eligible. Substantial cuts to FRM could reduce the quantity of free meals distributed throughout the county, putting over 67,000 students at risk of losing a daily source of breakfast and lunch. On top of that, federal funding contributes to the salaries of cafeteria staff members.

“Most of the time, both my mom and dad are at work from morning to night, so my parents don’t have time to pack me lunch. Sometimes they may not have the money either,” Neji said. “I know a lot of students [whose free lunch] could be their only meal of the day, or for a long time if there’s a break. These students won’t be having a reliable source of food because that was the only thing they could count on.”

ML services, previously known as ESOL, is another school-based program that thousands of FCPS students depend on. In the 2024-2025 school year, 147 McLean students received ML services, making up 6% of the school population. ML is a growing program across the county, with the number of ML students at McLean increasing by more than 25% since 2022. Across the county, over 37,000 students are projected to receive ML services, representing 20.8% of all students.

“Students come from another country, so they’re able to learn English and speak English,” ML teacher Tracy Santasine said. “It would be difficult [without ML] because a lot of times the students may not have another family member that speaks English at home, or students prefer using their home language. Having [ML] to learn English is important.”
Across FCPS, ML classes typically have a higher student-teacher ratio compared to general education, meaning each teacher is responsible for instructing more students. Defunding ML programs could lead to wage cuts and teacher layoffs, making it even more difficult for ML teachers to help English-learning students reach a necessary level of proficiency.

“I moved here from Norway my freshman year, and this is my fourth year in ESOL,” senior Olea Reitan said. “[ML] is important to learn English and to have support to communicate with others. All my teachers in [ML] are so supportive when I’m struggling in other classes or if I have questions.”

For special education programs, federal funding directly covers salaries for teachers through the Individual with Disabilities in Education Act, which over 31,000 students and 3,700 teachers rely on. As special education already accounts for 9% of FCPS’s deficit spending, funding cuts will strain the budget even more.
The DOE also plans to withhold money from the Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP), which provides special funding to magnet schools like Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ). The $3.4 million at stake for MSAP is separate from the original $167 million threatened by the DOE, reflecting another attempt by the federal government to force FCPS compliance.

“At TJ, the biggest thing is the labs—we have so much equipment that costs tens of thousands of dollars. That equipment could not have been possible without grants from the government,” said Sophia Guo, a senior at TJ. “You can already see [the cuts] are taking a toll on the quality of the research that we can do for our senior year projects. It feels as though something is being taken away from me, and I know that a lot of kids can say the same about that too.”
Recently, TJ rose to fifth best in U.S. high school rankings after falling to 14th in 2024. Substantial funding cuts to TJ’s academic programs risk lowering the school’s ranking yet again.

“TJ has been built on years and years of material effort. We stand on the shoulders of the upperclassman that came before us, and their work was able to be done and kept record of in part because we have the funds to be able to utilize materials,” Guo said. “There’s tournaments that we go to that have fees that are paid for by the school. Now, because grants are cut, there is a big possibility that the money that clubs receive will be cut, which will hinder the amount of participation of current members.”
As FCPS’s funding hangs in the balance, teachers and students must find ways to accommodate the loss of funding while minimizing damage to vulnerable groups.
¨We want to protect the health and safety of all students, follow state law and ensure that students have the services they need,” Lady said. “We’re not going to pit one student group over another—we’re going to fight for them all.”

A Path of Uncertainty

As the legal challenges filed against the DOE percolate through the courts, decisions reached in the process, whether for or against FCPS, will redefine the role that the federal government will play in education.

As of now, FCPS’s legal arguments are founded upon precedent set by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board, which explicitly protects the right of transgender students to have gender-affirming restrooms. This holds true even after FCPS’s legal setbacks in federal court.

“This Court unconditionally recognizes that Grimm remains the law of this Circuit and thus binds both this Court and parties within the 4th Circuit,” Alston said.
If the case is transferred to the CFC under the district court’s ruling, the applicability of this precedent could be limited during legal arguments since the CFC is not directly bound by 4th Circuit precedent. And while FCPS has appealed the decision, there have been no new outcomes as of the time of publishing.

If the Supreme Court were to decide that biological sex supersedes gender identity in West Virginia v. B.P.J., the decision would override contrary positions held by judges at the federal district and circuit court level, removing one of the most persuasive legal arguments FCPS has.

If the legal arguments of FCPS fall short, the county may have to rely more on alternative sources of revenue for the next few years. While FCPS anticipated a degree of instability within federal funding, it ultimately concluded in its budget documents that “federal aid is projected to remain level from FY 2027.”

“We absolutely had angst about [federal funding] last year,” Lady said. “But we always chose to believe that our government will do the right thing when it comes to educating children, especially those that are most vulnerable.”

Making up the $167 million difference will be challenging for FCPS, particularly as the county is unwilling to further raise real estate taxes, one of the largest sources of revenue. Other recent measures to diversify the tax base, such as the 4% countywide meals tax, are inadequate. The total yearly revenue generated by the meals tax is estimated to be $140 million, but this would still leave the county in a deficit.

FCPS also cannot rely too heavily on state funding to make up the funding gap. In Virginia, the amount of aid a particular school district receives is based on factors such as real estate value and adjusted gross income in the area served by the school district. Under this system, more affluent areas such as Fairfax County receive reduced state aid, leading to FCPS receiving around $2,000 less in funding per student compared to the average school district in Virginia.

“We’re being shorted around $368 million a year from the state,” Lady said. “We’re never not going to have a funding problem in FCPS until the state changes its funding model.”
Even if a political shift at the federal level occurs following an election, the withholding of funds will have caused lasting, irreparable harm. According to MIT, uncertainty in the budgeting process leads to school districts preemptively providing notice to teachers of potential layoffs. While recipients of these notices may not be laid off in the end, it leads to anxiety among teachers as they adjust their focus to finding alternative careers. This is particularly detrimental to “specialist” teachers—such as those who teach the arts—since they are typically the first target of workforce reductions.

“[Cutting back staff] is something that we’re going to have to look at in our upcoming budget discussions,” Reid said in a school board meeting on Sept. 25. “It’s a definite conversation that we’re going to have with the budget moving forward. When we’re not fully funded, it creates a situation that results in tough choices.”

On a broader scale, the ongoing battle could establish a precedent for the financial relationship between FCPS and the federal government. The government will likely threaten to withhold funding for divisive political issues, as seen by the DOE’s effort to withhold magnet school funding for Chicago and New York Public Schools, two Democratic school districts accused of violating civil rights law.

“There are 12 Democrats on the school board, and Fairfax County is majority Democratic when it comes to voting in elections,” McElveen said. “I think that’s what makes us a target.”

Cuts that are made today will impact students far into the future.

“Cutting funding is directly hindering the possible innovations and achievements that the future generation can make,” Guo said. “It doesn’t give [students] a chance to build up their foundational skills.”

The full effects of the funding cuts on FCPS have yet to be seen, but the federal government has already made its position clear.

“This is a situation in which students are the pawns, and it’s unfortunate that this is how it’s evolved. But we’re firm and standing up to support our students of all backgrounds,” McElveen said. “We won’t be bullied by the federal government.”

Addenum:
FCPS is still waiting for the 4th Circuit to hear their appeal. The federal judiciary may experience further delays with the ongoing government shutdown, delaying FCPS’s case.