photo credit: Courtesy of Yna Bollock/SRJC Oak Leaf
The Santa Rosa Junior College women’s volleyball team huddle and get ready for the game against American River College on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025 in Haehl Pavilion.

President Donald Trump's administration announced that it is conducting an investigation into the California Community College Athletic Association, two California community colleges, and two California TK-12 schools for their transgender athlete policies.

A Title IX Special Investigations Team announced in a press release on Thursday that it initiated an investigation into the athletic association for California community colleges.

The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights separately announced on Wednesday that it would be investigating 18 schools and colleges, including Santa Monica College, Santa Rosa Junior College, Jurupa Unified School District, and the Placentia-Yorba Linda School District.

At issue are policies that allow transgender women or nonbinary athletes to participate in women's and girls' sports. The California Community College Athletic Association, for instance, allows transgender women and nonbinary students to participate on a women's team after they have completed one calendar year of testosterone suppression treatment. California requires TK-12 school districts to base sports participation on gender identity, not an individual's sex assigned at birth.

The Trump administration frames these policies as a violation of Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination.

"The fact that a Community College Athletic Association has a 'Transgender Participation Policy' is a stunning indictment of our culture," said Kimberly Richey, assistant secretary for the Office for Civil Rights, in a statement.

She noted on a podcast with the late Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk that Gov. Gavin Newsom said it was "deeply unfair" for someone who was assigned male at birth to compete in women's sports.

The California Community College Athletic Association told the Los Angeles Times that it "takes its obligations under Title IX seriously and is committed to providing equitable athletic opportunities for all student-athletes. The association will fully cooperate with the review process."

This comes the same week that the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on behalf of transgender athletes barred by their states from participating in women's and girls' sports. A majority of the justices seemed primed to rule against the transgender athletes.

Nearly a year ago, the White House released a memo titled "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports," indicating the administration's intention to deny federal funds to schools and colleges with these policies.