EXCLUSIVE: The U.S. Department of Education is formally rescinding the Biden administration’s 2024 Title IX rule, Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced in an interview with OutKick.
McMahon said the action reinforces the administration’s position that girls’ and women’s sports should be reserved for females.
“We’re just acknowledging that boys and men are in boys and men’s sports and girls are in theirs,” McMahon told OutKick.
The action restores the 2020 regulatory text in the Code of Federal Regulations. Courts had already invalidated the Biden rule, and the department announced in January 2025 that it would enforce the first Trump administration’s regulations.
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OutKick asked McMahon what this step accomplishes, given that her department was already enforcing those rules.
“Well, it just gives clarification to students, teachers, schools, parents,” she said. “Everyone now knows what the rule is and how everyone is going to abide by it.”
Asked whether schools face new obligations or deadlines, McMahon said they should return to the Trump-era rules. She did not identify a new compliance deadline.
“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,” McMahon said. “And so now this is just returned to Title IX as it was originally intended.”
The Biden administration’s 2024 rule expanded Title IX’s sex-discrimination protections to include gender identity. Its separate proposal addressing eligibility for athletic teams was withdrawn in December 2024.
The Trump administration has pursued its interpretation of Title IX through investigations, funding restrictions and referrals to the Department of Justice.
As OutKick has reported, the departments of Education and Justice announced the Title IX Special Investigations Team on April 4, 2025.
The federal government also filed a lawsuit against Maine over the state’s policy allowing trans-identifying males to compete in girls’ sports.
Asked about consequences for states including Maine, California and Minnesota, McMahon described the department’s use of reimbursement requirements for funding recipients designated as high risk.
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“What that means is that they don’t get their funding in advance. They have to produce receipts to us,” McMahon said. “We therefore can confirm that they are spending the money in ways that it should be spent.”
She also cited her department’s referral of the Maine case to the Justice Department.
“So there are many kinds of consequences that can come to states and schools that are not abiding by Title IX,” she said.
McMahon also addressed what recourse is available to female athletes who have already lost records, titles or opportunities.
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She pointed to the University of Pennsylvania’s agreement with the department, which OutKick reported in July 2025. That agreement required Penn to restore records and titles to female athletes and issue apologies following Lia Thomas’ participation on the women’s swimming team.
“Not only were apologies extended, but the titles were then given to the women who had rightfully won,” McMahon told OutKick.
Asked whether the Penn agreement provides a framework for other cases, McMahon said the department would consider each circumstance individually.
For parents whose daughters are told to compete against a male athlete or share a locker room with one, McMahon advised raising the issue with the responsible school officials, including the superintendent, and reporting it to federal authorities. She did not specify how quickly the department could intervene.
On June 30, 2026, the Supreme Court upheld laws in Idaho and West Virginia restricting girls’ and women’s sports to females.
When asked about the legal path to requiring sex-based eligibility in girls’ sports nationwide, McMahon pointed to Title IX itself.
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“Well, it is Title IX. That is exactly why Title IX was established,” she said. “It is in law, it exists, it’s a statute, and it should be obeyed.”
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