Spring Branch ISD Board Rejects New Title IX Protections Amid State Pressure, Risks Losing $56M in Federal Funding

In a contentious move that has drawn ire from advocates and concerned citizens, the board of trustees for Spring Branch ISD made a unanimous decision to reject the latest federal Title IX regulations, which extend protections to include gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy. This outcome comes off the heels of a meeting where the board faced vocal opposition from community members, with one advocate, Mallory Shaddix, expressing that “It shoots another kind of arrow into the culture wars,” as reported by the Houston Chronicle.

Spring Branch ISD's dilemma centers around the tightrope walk of adhering to state guidelines pushed by Texas leaders like Governor Greg Abbott, who has been clear in his stance against the updated law, and the potential to lose a whopping $56 million in federal funding—a predicament that would further stretch an already budget-strapped district which is grappling with recent school closures and slashes to its librarian positions, the district is also contending with a budget deficit of $35 million for the 2024-2025 school year, KPRC 2 illuminates these additional financial struggles.

The district's contracted counsel Ellen Spalding pointed out that the resolution is a confirmation of the district's adherence to Title IX's basic principles, despite the "irreconcilable conflict" with state laws when following the federal government's final Title IX ruling, as the Houston Chronicle outlines.

 However, Nathalie Herpin, a parent and president of 'Families for Every Child,' suggested to KPRC 2 that the district might be playing a political game, “We don’t have 56 million to lose," citing the perilous financial impact of opposing federal law compared to the vague consequences of defying state guidance.

With deepening divides on this issue within the community, advocates insist that taking a stance against the ruling is effectively choosing the wrong side of history, Cameron Samuels, a Katy ISD graduate and founder of the nonprofit Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT), supported this sentiment during the meeting, Cameron Samuels who called for recognition and support for gender-diverse students, highlighting that over 1,000 students in the district could identify as transgender or nonbinary based on population statistics, and that discrimination could have detrimental effects on their welfare—a point backed up by concerns from Mandy Giles, founder of transgender advocacy group 'Parents of Trans Youth,' who told KPRC 2 about the potential negative impact on LGBT+ students' mental health.

The final regulations provided by the Department of Education, which emphasize a nondiscrimination principle except in the context of sex-separate living facilities and sex-separate athletic teams, do not address athletic eligibility which has become a centerpiece in the state's opposition to the new rules, and despite these nuances, Texas has continued to challenge the federal guidance with Attorney General Ken Paxton actively suing and arguing against the expansion of Title IX definitions, leading to a recent injunction that sided with Paxton's interpretation of the guidance as overreach by the Biden administration, a stance that has emboldened the state to double down on existing laws that limit gender identity recognition in school policies.