Judge Nixes White House Plan Pulling NYC Magnet School Grants

A Manhattan judge vacated the Trump administration’s decision to strip millions in future grant money supporting 19 New York City magnet schools due to the schools’ policies on transgender students.

The US Education Department failed to follow procedures set out in federal civil rights law before revoking the funding, including providing the New York City Public School system with an opportunity for a hearing and filing a written report with Congress, US District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Arun Subramanian said in his Wednesday order granting summary judgment to the New York City schools.

The administration’s argument that it isn’t subject to judicial review under Title IX because its decision was made under a different federal regulation and statute that give the agency authority to discontinue grants if applicants engage in discrimination “flies in the face of the record,” Subramanian said.

However, the court “cannot—and does not—order” the Education Department to pay the schools or renew the grants, Subramanian said, vacating the department’s decision to withdraw the grants and issuing a permanent injunction against the agency. He did not issue an opinion on whether the guidelines violate Title IX or whether there were proper grounds for withdrawing the funding.

The Education Department must follow the proper Title IX procedures before deciding not to continue the grant funding “based on Title IX findings or ‘civil rights violations,’” he said.

New York City sued the Trump administration in October for stripping the funds, resulting in a loss of $11 million in carryover Magnet Schools Assistance Program grant funding and an additional $36 million through 2028 for schools that have historically served isolated and low-income Hispanic and Black students. The administration violated the Title IX adjudication process when it failed to give the city notice or an opportunity to respond, the city alleged.

In November, the Trump administration and New York City reached an agreement letting the schools access the $11 million carryover funds pending a decision on the status of future funding.

The administration cited Title IX violations when it discontinued the five-year MAPS grants, saying New York City Public Schools guidelines violated the law by allowing transgender students to participate in athletic activities and use bathrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity.

The government argued the decision isn’t subject to Title IX review, but “accepting defendants’ argument that they can talk almost exclusively about Title IX but then claim that Title IX procedures do not apply would largely render the specific enforcement provisions that Congress wrote into the statute irrelevant,” Subramanian said.

He added that it “strains credulity to argue that the DOE’s actions were anything other than an effort to enforce Title IX.”

The case is The Bd. of Educ. of The City Sch. Dist. of The City of New York v. U.S. Dep’t of Educ., S.D.N.Y., No. 1:25-cv-08547, 4/8/26.