On October 15, 2025 New York City sued the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) over its decision in September to terminate $47 million in federal funding for 19 magnet schools. The USDE cut off the nation’s largest school system from discretionary grant funding after it found the New York City Department of Education violated Title IX when it set transgender-inclusive bathroom and locker room policies.
In an unprecedented measure, the USDE, in a September 16th letter, gave New York City Public Schools a short timeline of just three days to agree to overhaul its Title IX policies in response to the USDE’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) decision.
The lawsuit seeks to stop the defunding of the Magnet School Assistance Program, meant to help with desegregation and that primarily serves low-income Hispanic and Black students. OCR said in its letter to New York City that funding the grant is “no longer in the best interest of the Federal Government.”
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