On March 31, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation into this complaint. See the letter here.
On August 8, 2026, Defending Education (DE) filed a complaint against New Hampshire’s Contoocook Valley School District (ConVal) with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. DE claims ConVal is violating Title IX, which bans sex discrimination in schools that get federal funds. Further, we claim that ConVal is violating the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause, which bars government bodies, including public schools, from sex-based discrimination unless they have a very strong reason.
Title IX protects girls’ right to bathrooms and locker rooms of their own. District leaders told a ConVal parent that they will ignore Title IX and follow New Hampshire law and district policy instead, which let biological males who identify as girls use girls’ private spaces. If a girl is uncomfortable sharing the locker room with a boy, the school will ask her, not the boy, to “change elsewhere.”
ConVal takes federal money, so it must follow federal law. When state and federal law conflict, the Constitution says federal law wins. As such, ConVal must defend girls’ rights under Title IX.
Defending Education urges the Department to investigate every claim in its complaint, fix ConVal’s illegal policies and practices, and order the right remedies.
Read the full complaint below:
