Several Colorado school districts that sued over state rules on transgender participation in high school sports say they’ve reached a settlement with the Colorado High School Activities Association and its leadership – one of the defendants in a lawsuit that also includes state agencies.
The lawsuit’s claims against the commissioners of the Colorado Civil Rights Division and Colorado Attorney General Phillip Weiser will still move forward. The case could have implications for school sports across the state.
The case, led by Colorado Springs-area school District 49, challenged Colorado’s anti-discrimination law and CHSAA bylaws on transgender participation in sports and use of locker rooms as violating federal equal protection guarantees and Title IX.
Colorado law and the sports association’s bylaws require schools to allow students to play on sports teams and use facilities that match their gender identity, not their sex at birth.
The parties are finalizing a written settlement agreement to dismiss the claims against CHSAA, which oversees high school sports in Colorado, within seven days after the terms are completed, according to the filing. It’s unclear what the terms of the settlement are.
District 49 policy
In May, District 49’s school board adopted a controversial policy that classifies all school sports teams by “biological sex” and bans student athletes from playing on teams or sharing locker rooms and hotel rooms with students different from the gender they were assigned at birth.
The district says the policy preserves fair competition for girls and protects student privacy in intimate spaces. It also contends the new policy complies with federal equal protection laws and a February Trump administration executive order directing schools to preserve single-sex sports. It threatened to withhold federal funding from schools that allow transgender athletes to participate in girls’ sports.
A day after passing the policy, District 49 sued the state over its anti-discrimination law and high school sports rules.
The complaint
The complaint says the state’s rules forced the district to choose between following federal obligations — risking state investigations, fines, or athletic suspension — or complying with state law and CHSAA rules and jeopardizing federal funding and students’ constitutional rights.
It argues that requiring transgender girls to compete in girls’ sports or share girls’ locker rooms constitutes sex discrimination against female students and violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
District 49 asked the court to declare Colorado’s civil rights law and CHSAA bylaws unconstitutional to the extent that they bar schools from limiting teams’ locker rooms to one sex. It asked the court to block state officials and CHSAA from enforcing those provisions and to permanently shield the district from related investigations, fines, and athletic sanctions.
Other plaintiffs in the case include Colorado Springs-area districts District 11 and Academic School District 20, the Montezuma-Cortez school district and several charter schools.
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