Trump DOJ investigating ‘gender ideology’ in 3 dozen Illinois school
districts
[May 02, 2026]
By Hannah Meisel
CHICAGO — Three dozen Illinois school districts are the latest in a
string of public schools, colleges and universities across the country
named as subjects of federal investigations into whether the
institutions teach about sexual orientation and “gender ideology,” and
whether parents can opt out of such curriculum.
The inquiry, announced by the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday,
will also “assess” whether the 35 school districts around the state,
plus Chicago’s largest charter school network, allow transgender
students to use single-sex bathrooms or participate in competitive
sports.
The DOJ’s notice did not say what prompted the investigation or why the
districts — which range from rural schools with extremely small
enrollment to one of the largest districts in Illinois — and the agency
did not respond to a request for clarification. More than half of the
school districts are in the Chicago area, though the list does not
include any of the large suburban school districts that have attracted
attention in recent years for litigation over trans students’ access to
bathrooms and locker rooms.
But Thursday’s announcement did point to a June 2025 U.S. Supreme Court
decision that requires school districts to allow opt-outs for LGBTQ-related
lessons in the classroom, plus a more recent March ruling blocking a
California policy that allowed schools to keep a student’s gender
transition private from their parents.
“This Department of Justice is determined to put an end to local school
authorities keeping parents in the dark about how sexuality and gender
ideology are being pushed in classrooms,” Assistant Attorney General
Harmeet Dhillon said in the news release.
Dhillon, who advised Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign and rose to
prominence as the face of several unsuccessful lawsuits against
California’s COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, is the administration’s key
lawyer on civil rights issues. As assistant attorney general for civil
rights, Dhillon oversees the “Title IX Special Investigations Team” — a
joint effort between the DOJ and U.S. Department of Education that was
launched last year.
“Supreme Court precedent leaves no doubt: Parents have the fundamental
right and primary authority to direct the care, upbringing, and
education of their children,” Dhillon said. “This includes exempting
their children from ideological instruction that contradicts their
values or decisions about their children’s health and best interests.”
In a statement, Gov. JB Pritzker dismissed the inquiry as the Trump
administration continuing to “punish states the president does not
like,” calling it a “sham investigation.”
“The Civil Rights Division used to investigate actual discrimination
concerns to ensure all individuals are treated equally under the law,
but they’re now focused on belittling the rights and humanity of LGBTQ+
communities,” he said.
In 2019, Pritzker signed legislation requiring Illinois public schools’
history curriculum “include a study of the roles and contributions of
lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the history of this
country and this state,” but Thursday’s news release made no mention of
the law.
String of investigations
The DOJ’s announcement is similar to more than a dozen from the Trump
administration since the president began his second term last January,
most citing Title IX, the sweeping 1972 federal law that prohibits sex
discrimination in education.
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The Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington,
D.C. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
One of his first official acts back in power was signing an executive
order dubbed “Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports,” which threatened to
“rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and
girls of fair athletic opportunities.”
That included school lunch funds from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, as the state of Maine found out in early 2025 after a
public spat between the president and Gov. Janet Mills at the White
House over the executive order. After the Department of Education
launched an investigation into the state’s education agency and
subsequently froze the funding, a judge ordered the USDA to unfreeze the
funds, and the agency settled the suit.
In recent months, Trump’s DOJ and Department of Education have launched
investigations into K-12 school districts and state education
authorities in New Hampshire, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan,
California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania,
Vermont, Washington and Maine again.
Inquiries announced last year in states like New York, Oregon and
Washington are ongoing, though the administration has claimed it found
evidence of violation of Title IX in Kansas and Colorado school
districts. The administration has also launched, and in some cases
wrapped up, similar assessments of public universities and community
colleges.
ACLU of Illinois cites wrong interpretation
Ed Yohnka with the ACLU of Illinois said the Trump administration is
wrongly interpreting both federal and state law, which he said are both
“clear that students have an ability to play on sports teams and to use
private areas consistent with their gender identity.”
Yohnka also said it was ironic that the Trump administration, brought to
power by Republicans who generally oppose government overreach, was
trying to limit local control of school districts.
“None of these schools need some ideological culture warrior in
Washington, D.C., telling Watseka what their curriculum should be,” he
said. “The notion that Justice Department is going to launch
investigations and divert money for education because the president
signed a piece of paper is just a misuse of our tax dollars.”
Yohnka said he wasn’t aware of any pattern among the three dozen
districts the DOJ is investigating, but one school official from rural
northwest Illinois has an “emerging operational theory.” In a social
media post Friday, Oregon Community Unit School District 220
Superintendent PJ Caposey said he didn’t have “definitive answers” from
the DOJ as to why his district was included, he posited it may have
something to do with the districts’ participation in a federal School
Violence Prevention Program grant.
“To be absolutely clear, this does not confirm that grant participation
is the reason for inclusion, nor can we state that as fact,” he wrote.
“It is simply one possible connection being explored as we work to
better understand the broader picture.”
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by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. |
