The Trump administration told Chicago Public Schools Tuesday that it will cancel a grant after the school district failed to abolish the Black Student Success Plan, as the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights demanded.
CPS also refused to comply with the federal government’s second demand: Issue a statement barring transgender students from using bathrooms or competing in sports that coincide with their gender identity.
Department of Education Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor wrote in a email sent to CPS “that the school district fails to address the harms befalling CPS students while the district violates federal antidiscrimination laws.” Therefore, he wrote that he will stand by his decision to pull the grant.
CPS said it expected $8 million from the Magnet Schools Assistance Program and planned to use the money to develop personalized learning programs and STEAM instruction in particular schools. CPS officials said it is currently reviewing whether it will be able to maintain these initiatives.
In relation to the district’s roughly $10 billion budget, the grant is relatively small. But pulling this funding could signal the Trump administration’s willingness to come after more of the district’s federal funding, which is projected to make up around $1 billion of the district’s 2026 budget.
Just a week ago, Trainor demanded CPS take action to change these policies, which he maintains discriminate against non-Black students and students who do not identify as transgender. Trainor first gave CPS til Friday Sept. 19 and then Tuesday Sept. 23 to comply.
In a letter sent on Friday, CPS attorney Elizabeth Barton criticized the federal government for giving the school district 72 hours to make the changes and for threatening to pull funds without due process. Barton also defended the Black Student Success Plan and the district’s policies associated with transgender students, saying they complied with state laws and were in the best interest of students.
“Your arguments are unpersuasive,” Trainor wrote in an email letter to the school district Saturday. It was provided by CPS.
On Wednesday, Department of Education spokesperson Julie Hartman stood by the department’s decision to pull funding and said it would do the same in similar battles with school districts in New York City and Fairfax County, Virginia.
“The Department will not rubber-stamp civil rights compliance for New York, Chicago, and Fairfax while they blatantly discriminate against students based on race and sex,” Hartman said in a statement. “These are public schools, funded by hardworking American families, and parents have every right to expect an excellent education — not ideological indoctrination masquerading as ‘inclusive’ policy. If these entities are willing to risk federal funding to continue their illegal activity, that decision falls squarely on them.”
Trainor had previously said the Black Student Success Plan was “textbook racial discrimination,” and biased against white students and staff, and that allowing trans students to use the bathrooms that align with their gender identity creates a “hostile educational environment.”