The Education Department determined on Thursday that Denver Public Schools’ bathroom policy is in violation of federal civil rights law.

DPS’s policy allowing students to use private facilities corresponding to their “gender identity” rather than their biological sex is out of compliance with federal regulations, the department said, as well as the school district’s move to convert sex-separated multi-stall restrooms into “all-gender” facilities. The agency’s Office for Civil Rights said the policies violate Title IX, which extends protections against discrimination on the basis of sex, by allowing males to “invade sensitive female-only spaces,” and vice versa.

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“… the District is creating a hostile environment for its students by endangering their safety, privacy, and dignity while denying them access to equal educational activities and opportunities,” acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said in a statement.

The Education Department warned DPS that its federal funding could be at risk if it doesn’t make a series of requested changes within 10 days, including rescinding any guidance allowing students to access intimate facilities based on “gender identity” instead of biological sex, redesignating all multi-stall restrooms for use by both sexes in any district school back to sex-designated multi-stall restrooms, and adopting biology-based definitions for the words “male” and “female” instead of “gender identifying” in all policies and practices related to Title IX.

“Denver is free to endorse a self-defeating gender ideology, but it is not free to accept federal taxpayer funds and harm its students in violation of Title IX,” Trainor said. 

The federal investigation into DPS began in January when OCR began investigating local complaints that Denver East High School converted a female restroom into a gender-neutral space.

OCR’s investigation concluded that “multiple students and parents expressed concerns about sexual assault and privacy in their complaints, and one complainant shared that ‘the female students are very uncomfortable with a male teacher going in frequently [to the restroom] to check on things … it should be a female teacher.’”

The Education Department’s latest announcements come as the Trump administration has prioritized targeting public schools and other federally funded entities for favoring “gender identity” policies that disregard biological sex, which the agency said violates Title IX.

Earlier this month, the agency found five Virginia school districts in violation of Title IX over bathroom and locker room policies that allowed transgender-identifying students to use facilities that do not correspond to their biological sex.

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While federal civil rights laws such as Title IX already provide regulation over such spaces, Congress is eying legislation that would further target the issue. House Republicans on Tuesday introduced a bill seeking to bar transgender girls from bathrooms, sports teams, or restrooms that do not align with their biological sex.

The Washington Examiner reached out to DPS for comment.