Trump administration orders CPS to abolish Black Student Success Plan and challenge transgender guidelines

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has ordered Chicago Public Schools to abolish its Black Student Success Plan and to revise guidelines governing transgender and gender-nonconforming students, saying the district’s policies violate federal anti-discrimination laws. In a letter to CPS, OCR said the plan and the gender policy are discriminatory because they apply only to Black students and fail to meet federal requirements. The department also warned that CPS’s five-year Magnet School Assistance Program grant, which ChalkBeat reported totaled about $15 million last year, could be jeopardized if the district does not comply.

OCR gave CPS a three-day deadline to come into compliance and laid out a sequence of steps the district must take before grant certification. Before any grant disbursement, OCR’s Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights must sign an assurance that the applicant will 'not engage in discrimination based on race, religion, color, national origin, sex, or disability'.

The department also instructed CPS to adopt biology-based definitions for 'male' and 'female' to align with federal statutes and to roll back its gender-nonconforming guidelines, which OCR termed 'facially discriminatory'. The letter adds that 'they have 3 days to come into compliance. The clock is ticking,' a line highlighted by the department in its communications. It also quotes a provision that policies should not discriminate on the basis of sex, reinforcing the expectation that sex-based definitions align with federal law. The document further states, 'It says nothing about the feelings of safety and inclusivity of the female students who are forced to play against males.'

The letter also cited magnet schools in New York City and Fairfax County, Virginia, for allegedly disobeying federal law. McMahon posted on X that the department will not certify magnet schools in those districts if they are 'clearly not following the law' and that protecting students’ civil rights is non-negotiable. The letter said those districts would be affected as the department assesses compliance across multiple magnet programs.

The Chicago Public Schools’ five-year Magnet School Assistance Program grant is designed to promote desegregation by increasing interaction among students of different social, economic, ethnic, and racial backgrounds. CPS officials told Fox News Digital they do 'not comment on ongoing investigations.'

ChalkBeat reports the magnet program’s dollar amount highlights the stakes: the grant supports desegregation efforts and access to specialized programs across CPS, and the OCR has linked grant certification to compliance with non-discrimination requirements. The department’s action underscores a broader federal push to enforce civil rights protections in education and to ensure that magnet and other federally funded programs operate within statutory and regulatory boundaries.

The OCR’s investigation in Chicago began in the spring and focused on how the district’s transgender-supportive policies align with Illinois statutes and how those policies intersect with the district’s Black Student Success Plan. While CPS disputes and reviews the findings, the OCR’s action places direct pressure on CPS to align its programs with federal expectations as a condition of continuing federal funding. This episode fits into a larger national conversation about how districts balance student rights, safety, and inclusion with federal civil rights obligations and program requirements.

The department has asserted that protecting civil rights in education is non-negotiable, and CPS has three days to come into compliance. The unfolding dispute centers on how districts structure student supports, the role of race in program access, and how gender identity policies intersect with federal law and funding conditions.