On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Education said the Denver Public School system discriminated against some students by creating all-gender restrooms and letting students use facilities aligned with their gender identity instead of their sex at birth.

The agency’s Office for Civil Rights opened the investigation in January, primarily over issues at East High School where the district retrofitted one of the girls’ restrooms into an all-gender bathroom. The district said at the time the decision was a violation of federal standards under Title IX.

Critics of the bathroom conversion, which included officials with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, said the decision created inequities because there was another restroom in the same hallway that was for boys only.

District officials maintain, however, the school leadership and students went through an inclusive and student-led process to make the decision, and that the school installed 12-foot-tall partitions around all toilets to make sure students had private and secure facilities.

The agency said, however, the decision to change the bathroom was a violation of Title IX.

“The conversion of a single-sex restroom designated for girls in East High School to an ‘all-gender’ facility and the practice of allowing students to use the high school’s intimate facilities on the basis of their gender identity rather than their biological sex deprived students of equal access to facilities and created a sexually hostile environment in violation of Title IX and its implementing regulations,” Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said in a statement.

East High School later added another all-gender bathroom on the same floor in an effort to address those equity concerns.

District officials have also noted that the students still have access to both male and female bathrooms and single-stall, all-gender restrooms throughout the school building.

The Department of Education sent the district a letter, referred to as a resolution agreement, that sets four conditions the district will need to meet in 10 days in order to avoid enforcement action.

The district would be required to:

• Immediately redesignate the all-gender multi-stall restrooms back to single-sex facilities.
• Remove policies that allow students to access bathrooms and restrooms that are not aligned with their sex at birth.
• Change its definition of “male” and “female” to be “biology-based” in all of its policies and practices that pertain to Title IX.
• Send a memo to all schools that all bathrooms and intimate facilities must “protect the privacy, dignity, and safety of all students” and that they “must be comparable in quality, convenience, and accessibility to those of members of the other biological sex.”

The school system is under a 10-day deadline to either accept the conditions laid out by the department or request a hearing.

The department can move forward with enforcement actions if the school system rejects the conditions, and such actions could mean the school would lose federal funds.

Federal officials cited student safety and privacy in making their case that the district had violated Title IX.

“We should all be able to agree that policies which put our students’ safety, privacy, and dignity at risk should have no place in our schools, but that is what we have here,” Trainor said in a statement. “This action is just one of many important steps the Trump Administration is taking to protect students and end race and sex discrimination in our nation’s schools and colleges. Our students deserve better, and we will do everything in our power to ensure that our schools and colleges live up to that standard.”

Denver Public School District has said it has multiple bathroom options, and the school’s decision to create the new bathrooms were led by students. Officials have also noted that students have multiple other bathroom options, including single-stall, all-gender restrooms if they want additional privacy.

District officials have not yet publicly responded to the department’s letter or conditions.

Denver Public School’s decision is part of a broader national conversation over policies concerning gender identity.

Last month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order preventing transgender girls from playing on girls’ sports teams unless they meet sex-specific rules.

Congressional Republicans have also proposed legislation that would bar transgender students from using restrooms aligned with their gender identity or on sports teams.

The department has pursued a handful of cases against colleges and universities over their gender-related policies.

Earlier this week, officials said George Mason University used unlawful DEI practices in violation of Title VI.

Denver Public Schools now has to decide if it will agree to the federal government’s conditions or stand firm and risk enforcement action.

The school system can either agree or reject the conditions within 10 days.