Feds may withhold school funding for ‘illegal DEI practices’; state contends WA schools are in compliance

Legal disagreements continue between Washington state and the federal government after a directive from the Trump administration warned that state education agencies could lose federal funding if they have diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Civil rights officials from a freshly shrunken U.S. Department of Education sent a letter Thursday to state education departments and school districts giving them 10 days to affirm they are not using diversity, equity and inclusion programs to favor any one race above another.

“The use of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (“DEI”) programs to advantage one’s race over another – is impermissible. The use of certain DEI practices can violate federal law,” reads the letter from Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights for the Department of Education.

Schools who use “Illegal DEI practices” could lose federal funding, the missive warns.

The letter uses the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court case Students for Fair Admissions V. Harvard as statute for the department’s request. The decision struck down affirmative action, determining universities who collect federal funding cannot use race as a factor in admissions.

“Federal financial assistance is a privilege, not a right. When state education commissioners accept federal funds, they agree to abide by federal antidiscrimination requirements,” Trainor wrote in a news release. “Unfortunately, we have seen too many schools flout or outright violate these obligations, including by using DEI programs to discriminate against one group of Americans to favor another based on identity characteristics in clear violation of Title VI.”

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act bars discrimination based on race, color and national origin in any recipient of federal funds. It gives the U.S. Department of Justice the authority to revoke federal funds from agencies that are not in compliance.

Federal funding accounts for around 7% of Washington school districts’ budgets, on average, as high as 44% in some rural and tribal schools, according to the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

As has been the standard line in the first two and a half months of the Trump administration, Washington school districts awaited state guidance before acting on the letter.

Chris Reykdal, Washington’s superintendent of public instruction, told the 295 school districts in Washington on Friday not to take action on the letter, saying the office is working to “understand the legality of the directive and our next steps,” echoing his past guidance that school districts shouldn’t comply with federal directives that contradict state law.

“It is (the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction’s) position that Washington (local education agencies), in alignment with our state and federal laws, are already in compliance with Title VI. OSPI has previously submitted the required assurances that our state will comply with federal law,” Reykdal wrote in an email to school districts.

In February, the federal department issued a “dear colleague” letter to schools that they should cut DEI programs or risk federal funds. Reykdal told Washington schools to ignore that, too.

Some conservative Washington school boards have recently expressed discontent with the state’s directives, favoring the Trump administration’s executive orders that align with their positions on transgender students’ sports participation, for example. Reykdal told schools to ignore this directive and others that contradict state civil rights laws.

The Mead school board last month sent a letter to the Trump administration, imploring federal intervention to make Reykdal’s office comply with federal interpretation of the law. The board is in the midst of altering its “transgender students” policy that outlines pronoun use, parental notification, restroom and locker room access, to name a few, after the state deemed current policy noncompliant. Their drafted updates align more with the Trump administration’s position, and they’re scheduled to discuss the policy again at an April 28 board meeting.

Kennewick’s school board filed a complaint to federal officials at the end of March, with similar sentiments as Mead’s, saying conflicting directives from the state puts schools in a bind if they comply with one and therefore disregard the other, Washington State Standard reported. Kennewick Schools enrolls more than 19,000 students in the Tri-Cities area.

The board of the Moses Lake School District, which has 8,400 students in central Washington, sent a similar letter and went a step further by suspending its policy pertaining to transgender students at a March school board meeting. They’d previously sent a letter to Reykdal’s office imploring them to change standards more in line with Trump’s executive orders on transgender people and education, Columbia Basin Herald reported.

Reykdal’s office isn’t the first or only Washington agency to clash with the Trump administration’s actions and raise legal questions.

Washington’s attorney general filed a lawsuit on Friday, one of 19 states to do so, over a recent executive order imposing control on state elections. The executive order would require evidence of citizenship to register to vote and require that all mail ballots be received by Election Day.

The state also recently sued over the Trump administration’s cancellation of billions in federal dollars for health funding, such as for responding to infectious diseases or substance use. Washington lost around $160 million in these cuts that constituted $12 billion across the nation.

Across the border is a different story. The Idaho Department of Education intends to direct its agencies to sign the letter, spokesperson Maggie Reynolds said on Thursday.

Agencies have 10 days since Thursday to take action on the letter. Reykdal told Washington schools he’d have more direction on Monday or Tuesday.

Reporter Alexandra Duggan contributed to this story.