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The U.S. Department of Justice launched investigations into 36 Illinois school districts Thursday, one of the agency’s largest efforts to investigate districts under the Trump administration as it increases its footprint in K-12 education.
The investigations are meant to determine if districts “included sexual orientation and gender ideology (SOGI) content in any class for grades pre-K-12,” according to the agency’s announcement. If they did, the department will investigate whether the schools notified parents of their opt-out rights.
The investigation will also assess whether the districts prohibited transgender students’ access to bathrooms, facilities and athletic teams aligning with their gender identities.
Similar investigations have been referred to the Justice Department by the U.S. Department of Education over the last year — but the Illinois investigations were initiated by the Justice Department itself.
“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,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the Justice Department’s civil rights division, in an April 30 press release.
The investigations follow the recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Mirabelli v. Bonta and Mahmoud v. Taylor. In Bonta, the justices sided with parents who objected to California state policies that prevented schools from “outing” LGBTQ+ students to their parents. The Mahmoud case set precedent requiring school districts to allow parents to opt their children — and especially younger children — out of lessons with LGBTQ+-inclusive materials.
“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.”
The list of school districts being investigated in Illinois does not include Chicago Public Schools, which was targeted by the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights last year in a Title VI probe for a Black Students Success Plan initiative that focused on remedial measures for Black students.
The Education Department last year also launched an investigation into the Illinois Department of Education, Chicago Public Schools and Deerfield Public Schools under Title IX, the statute protecting students from sex discrimination in schools, for allegedly allowing transgender students access girls’ locker rooms.
Meanwhile, a report released this week by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., found that the Education Department’s output on civil rights case resolutions dropped to just 1% in 2025, the lowest performance from the Office for Civil Rights in over a decade.
The report said the office failed to enter resolution agreements in typically major areas of investigation such as sexual harassment and assault, restraint and seclusion for students with disabilities, racial harassment and school discipline disparities.
