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Title IX will be just the beginning.
Is Connecticut ready to lose all federal funding for school districts that discriminate against women, like Maine and Oregon? Because that is where they are headed if the CIAC and the CT Department of Education and big-time law firm, Shipman & Goodwin, don’t reconsider current interpretation of state law and its interaction with Title IX.
Shipman has recognized that the 2024 Title IX regulations are void and “Accordingly, schools are advised to discontinue use of policies and regulations that follow the 2024 Title IX Regulations and resume using those that were in place under the 2020 Title IX Regulations.” Any school that did not adopt the 2024 revisions at the advice of Family Institute of Connecticut will be saved the trouble of having to reverse course. This is a huge victory for Family Institute of Connecticut and our allies. But we need the victory to extend to girls in our state. Our girls remain discriminated against in locker rooms, sports and even bathrooms and private areas in school, school trips and more. We need the Office of Civil Rights to come back and renew their 2020 decision finding violations of Title IX in Connecticut.
Mysteriously, Shipman & Goodwin, which provides legal representation to many, if not most of the school boards in Connecticut, suddenly became uncertain about the supremacy and specificity of Title IX over conflicting state law. They also conflated Supreme Court decisions on employment law with Title IX. This conflation is unnecessary especially now that the Office of Civil Rights and the President have opined directly on Title IX’s application to conflicting interpretation of state law.
In Shipman’s January 2025 guidance to to coaches, “You live in Connecticut, and the law here is still the law. You should continue with business as usual.” Not so fast. Family Institute of Connecticut calls on the CIAC, CABE, Connecticut school boards and their legal counsel to reconsider based on the March 19, 2025 letter to Maine by the Federal Department of Education demanding they stop their discrimination based on Title IX or lose all federal funding.
We do have a fairness problem in school sports. In violation of Title IX, our Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference mandates that schools permit boys to compete in athletic competitions as girls. These are boys who identify as girls because of a mental illness or other reason. You may think it is very rare or not happening in CT, but I assure you every weekend this winter and last winter girls from Bloomfield High School, South Windsor High School, Tolland, E.O. Smith and more lost and continue to lose to boys playing in their sport. They are not just losing a spot at the podium or in the record books, girls are not just getting hurt, they can also lose out when competing for scholarships and college placements. The knowledge that adults didn’t stand up for them also cuts deep. Leslie Wolfgang testified before the Black & Puerto Rican Caucus on March 10, 2025 on this issue, which can be watched Time for Connecticut parents to stand up for our girls.
Despite new Executive Orders from President Trump aimed at protecting girls’ sports and stopping ideological indoctrination in K-12 education, Massachusetts schools continue to ignore these directives. With state leaders openly defying federal protections, parents need a way to hold schools accountable. Now, a powerful tool has been released to help families fight back.
A sister organization to Family Institute of Connecticut, The Massachusetts Liberty Legal Center, has helpfully created a Title IX Complaint Template for parents to report schools that fail to protect girls’ locker rooms, bathrooms, and sports teams. You can adopt it for Connecticut. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has already begun investigating violations. If your school is ignoring Title IX protections, use this template or this official link to file an official complaint and ensure federal action is taken.
