The Education Department formally rescinded the Biden administration’s 2024 Title IX rule and put the 2020 rules back in place, the department announced Monday, September 28. The 2020 rules define sex as biological sex, which keeps girls’ sports for girls. The Biden rule had stretched Title IX to cover gender identity, which opened girls’ and women’s teams to students who identify as girls.
Story Snapshot
- The Education Department formally rescinded the 2024 Biden Title IX rule and reinstated the 2020 rules.
- The 2020 rules define sex as biological sex and protect girls’ and women’s sports.
- A federal judge in Kentucky struck down the Biden rule in January 2025, and the administration has followed the 2020 rules since then.
- The change ran in the Federal Register on Tuesday, September 29, making it official in the Code of Federal Regulations.
What Changed And Why It Matters Now
Title IX is the federal law, more than 50 years old, that bars sex discrimination in schools that receive federal money. In April 2024, the Biden administration rewrote its rules to include sexual orientation and gender identity. The new action takes that rule off the books and restores the 2020 version, which treats sex as biological.
Yesterday, the Department of Education announced that it is formally rescinding the Biden administration’s 2024 Title IX rule and reinstating the 2020 Title IX regulations promulgated under the first Trump administration.
The rule change should bolster families and state…
— Heritage Foundation (@Heritage) September 29, 2026
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said, “Title IX was set up to give everyone, including women, equal opportunity to sports. And then under the Biden regulations, many of those rights had been taken away.” She added, “Everyone now knows what the rule is and how everyone is going to abide by it.”
How The Court’s Ruling Led Here
In January 2025, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky struck down the Biden rule nationwide, ruling that it went beyond the department’s authority. Before that, courts had temporarily blocked the rule in 26 states while lawsuits went on.
Since January 2025, the department has enforced the 2020 rules. But the 2024 text stayed in the Code of Federal Regulations while court fights continued. The recodification published Tuesday, September 29, formally removes it and puts the 2020 text back in its place.
What Schools And Families Should Expect
Schools that take federal money now work under one written rule that treats sex as biological. The department has already acted on this standard. It created a Title IX Special Investigations Team in April 2025 and ended gender identity agreements with six school districts made under earlier administrations. In July 2025, the University of Pennsylvania agreed to restore records and titles to female athletes and issue apologies.
President Trump also signed an executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” which defines sex as unchangeable biology.
The courts have moved the same way. On June 30, 2026, the Supreme Court upheld Idaho and West Virginia laws that keep girls’ sports for females. The federal government has also sued Maine over its policy on transgender athletes.
The Bigger Picture: One Rule On The Books
Before this step, the 2020 rules were followed in practice while the Biden text stayed in federal regulations. Now the written rule and the enforced rule are the same. McMahon put it plainly: “It is Title IX. That is exactly why Title IX was established. It is in law, it exists, it’s a statute, and it should be obeyed.”
Sources:
dailysignal.com, washingtonexaminer.com, foxnews.com, yahoo.com, ed.gov, washingtonpost.com
