How Trump Has Changed Schools in His First 100 Days: A Timeline

By Jennifer Vilcarino

President Donald Trump wasted little time in making his mark on the nation’s K-12 schools after taking the oath of office for his second term on Jan. 20. The 100 days since then have been unlike the start of any other presidential administration, due to the quantity and velocity of education-related policy shifts.

The timeline below documents the administration’s key education-related actions.

The Trump administration rescinds a 13-year internal policy that stated school grounds, churches, and other “sensitive locations” were generally protected from immigration enforcement activities, such as arrests and raids.

Trump issues an executive order to recognize only two sexes as a matter of U.S. policy and takes other actions ending the Biden administration’s efforts to extend Title IX sex-discrimination protections to transgender students.

Trump also issues an order to eradicate DEI programs from the federal government, carrying out a priority he promised on the campaign trail.

A federal funding pause causes mass confusion as schools and other federal funding recipients rush to determine whether their funds are subject to the freeze. Even after the Office of Management and Budget rescinds the memo ordering the indefinite freeze, confusion persists as the White House press secretary writes on social media that the order is still in effect. A federal judge halts the funding freeze minutes before it is set to take effect.

The Education Department launches an investigation into a Denver high school’s conversion of a girls’ restroom into an all-gender restroom, alleging a violation of Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination. The investigation offers an early sign of how the Education Department under Trump interprets Title IX and plans to use its power to investigate schools.

Trump signs two executive orders acting on education-related campaign pledges.

One aims to expand school choice on the federal level, but it is necessarily limited in the absence of broader legislation. The order directs the departments of Defense and Interior to develop plans to allow federal funds to go toward private schools from the school systems they run. The order also instructs the Department of Education to provide guidance on how states can use federal funds—such as Title I, which supports low-income students—to support private school choice.

The other aims to end what the president terms “radical indoctrination” in K-12 schools. Federal laws prevent the federal government from setting curriculum. But the order directs Cabinet secretaries to develop a plan that eliminates funding for schools that “directly or indirectly support or subsidize the instruction, advancement, or promotion of gender ideology or discriminatory equity ideology.” The order also reinstates Trump’s 1776 Commission, which the president created in his first term to promote “patriotic education,” but the Biden administration disbanded.

Jennifer Vilcarino is a digital news reporter for Education Week.

How Trump Has Changed Schools in His First 100 Days: A Timeline