Defending Education spurs federal probes into schools’ diversity and transgender policies

Defending Education helped trigger nearly a dozen federal civil-rights investigations by turning local school disputes over diversity and gender identity into complaints that reached the U.S. Department of Education. The pattern has moved from advocacy groups to federal investigators, with Chicago and five Northern Virginia districts becoming the clearest examples.

In Chicago, Defending Education filed a Title VI complaint in February 2025 over Chicago Public Schools’ Black Student Success Plan. The district had released the plan on February 20, 2025 after two years of work, including a series of working-group meetings that began on December 13, 2023. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened a Title VI investigation into Chicago Public Schools on April 29, 2025 based on that complaint, placing the district’s equity programming under federal scrutiny for alleged race discrimination.

Defending Education then broadened the fight in Virginia. On May 20, 2025, the group filed a federal civil-rights complaint against Fairfax County Public Schools, alleging race discrimination in programs or activities that receive federal funds and citing Title VI and the Equal Protection Clause. The move followed a wave of attention on Northern Virginia schools, where the Education Department had already opened investigations in February 2025 into Fairfax County, Loudoun County, Prince William County, Arlington and Alexandria City.

Those Northern Virginia probes grew out of a complaint from America First Legal, the conservative group founded by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller. The complaint challenged school policies that allowed transgender students to use names, pronouns, restrooms and locker rooms matching their gender identity. Together, the cases showed how outside conservative groups used civil-rights complaints to push federal agencies toward formal investigations of school policies on race and gender.

The broader push has fit neatly with the Trump administration’s sharp expansion of civil-rights enforcement in schools, especially around transgender policies, race-based equity programs and antisemitism. Senate Democrats, including Adam Schiff, have accused the administration of weaponizing the Office for Civil Rights, while school advocates have warned that the investigations could intimidate districts and divert attention from student support into ideological fights.