Education Department Formally Removes Biden Title IX Rule, Restores 2020 Regulations

WASHINGTON, — The Trump administration has formally removed the Biden administration’s 2024 Title IX regulations and restored the rules issued during President Donald Trump’s first term.

The change took effect Tuesday. Title IX bars sex discrimination in schools and colleges that receive federal funding. The Biden rule had treated discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation as forms of sex discrimination. The administration’s current policy interprets sex as a biological classification of male or female.

The timing needs context. Federal courts vacated the 2024 rule in 2025, and the Education Department says it has already been enforcing the earlier regulations for more than a year and a half. Tuesday’s action updates the published federal regulations to match the rules the department says are in force. It does not mark the first day schools stopped operating under the Biden rule.

The restored 2020 regulations also govern how federally funded schools respond to sexual harassment complaints. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the formal change would reduce confusion for parents, students and schools. The administration says its approach protects the rights, privacy and athletic opportunities of women and girls.

Opponents argue that removing the Biden rule weakens protections for transgender students and other students who relied on its broader definition of discrimination. Those competing concerns remain at the center of the Title IX debate: how schools protect students from discrimination and harassment while applying sex-based rules fairly.

There is also an important distinction in the headline circulating online. Tuesday’s final rule restores the pre-2024 regulatory text; it does not insert a new, explicit definition of “sex” into that text. The administration’s biological-sex definition comes from Trump’s separate 2025 executive order directing federal agencies on how to interpret and apply federal policy.

For families and schools, the immediate result is a clearer published rulebook. The larger disagreement over how Title IX should apply to sports, facilities and student protections is far from over.