Two federal agencies notified the Minnesota State High School League and the Minnesota Department of Education that they are seeking “enforcement action” against the state organizations for their “refusal to comply” with Title IX requirements regarding participation in women’s sports.
The U.S. Department of Education made the announcement on Monday, and said it was making the recommendation, along with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to the U.S. Justice Department.
“Despite repeated opportunities to comply with Title IX, Minnesota has chosen defiance — continuing to jeopardize the safety of women and girls, deny them fair competition, and erode their right to equal access in educational programs and activities,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement. “As Minnesota reels from a massive fraud scandal exposing Governor Tim Walz’s dereliction of duty, today’s referral to DOJ underscores the state’s ongoing failure to safeguard its citizens and uphold the rule of law. The Trump Administration will not stop until accountability is delivered for Minnesota’s students.”
The Post Bulletin has reached out to the Minnesota Department of Education and the Minnesota State High School League for comment.
The announcement comes nearly a year after the federal government announced it was opening an investigation into the state agencies regarding the issue, which it did in February 2025. Along with Minnesota, the federal government announced in 2025 that it was also launching an investigation into the California Interscholastic Federation.
At that time, the U.S. Department of Education referenced a recent presidential executive order, which was signed Feb. 5, and titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”
The executive order said: “Therefore, it is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy. It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”
The report then went on to demand that MDE and MSHSL “voluntarily resolve their Title IX violations within 10 days or risk imminent enforcement action.”
On Sept. 30, the U.S. Department of Education issued a statement, announcing that it found that the state of Minnesota had violated Title IX. That report said that “over the course of several years,” MDE and MSHSL allowed male athletes to compete on multiple girls’ teams, including Alpine and Nordic skiing, lacrosse, track and field, volleyball and fastpitch softball.
Minnesota has long advocated for gender inclusion in high school sports. In October 2014, MSHSL began deliberating on how to accommodate transgender athletes. According to Minnesota Public Radio, the League’s board of directors approved a resolution on an 18-1 vote two months later, allowing transgender athletes to compete in accordance with their gender identity.
Mark Kuisle, a former athletic director of Rochester Century High School as well as a former president of MSHSL, previously said the League had been discussing the issue for multiple years leading up to that 2014 vote.
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