ARLINGTON, Va. (7News) — Shortly after President Donald Trump took office, the U.S. Department of Education started investigating five Northern Virginia School Districts after receiving complaints alleging the districts’ bathroom and locker room policies are violating federal law and the President’s Executive Order to end “Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling.”

Right now, the five school districts' policies give students the option to use bathrooms and locker rooms at school based on their chosen gender identity.

The federal government’s investigation into the school districts has now concluded.

7News Reporter Nick Minock sat down with the U.S. Secretary of Education in a one-on-one interview to learn what the Trump administration found and what actions they may take.

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“Earlier this year, your department started an investigation into five Northern Virginia School systems. We're talking about Alexandria City Public Schools, Arlington Public Schools, Prince William County Public Schools, Fairfax County Public Schools, and Loudoun County Public Schools. You have now concluded that investigation at the Department of Education. What did you find?” Minock asked the U.S. Secretary of Education.

“We found that they were in violation,” answered U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon.Secretary McMahon said her department’s investigation found the Virginia school districts’ bathroom and locker room policies are in violation of federal law, including Title IX.

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The school districts’ current policies allow students to use bathrooms and locker rooms at school based on gender identity, meaning if a student identifies as the opposite sex, they are allowed to use the bathroom and locker room of that sex.

“And it's just also making girls feel vulnerable,” said McMahon. “They don't want to sit there and have boys watch them undress, or to have boys undress in front of them. And these are high schools that we're talking about. So these are really young men and women in these locker rooms. And so we feel that they have to change that policy.”

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Earlier this year, America First Legal filed a complaint against the five school districts. The legal group included some of 7News’ reporting about how a biologically male registered sex offender, identified as transgender, and Arlington Public Schools allowed him to use the women’s locker rooms at two high schools where he allegedly exposed himself to women and girls, according to witnesses and police.

“Doesn't [it] just fly in the face of common sense, for number one, when you just think about that? And picture if you are a parent of these girls, and this is allowed to happen, but especially a known sex offender, it's just wrong,” said McMahon. “It's patently wrong, it's dangerous, and it has to be stopped.”

McMahon also points to how a female student was sexually assaulted in 2021 by a biologically male student in a girls’ bathroom at Loudoun County’s Stone Bridge High School.

In recent months, several parents have shared their frustrations at Loudoun County School Board meetings about how the district’s policy is impacting their children in school.

“Four years ago, I came to speak to the board about policy 8040 after my son, then in the fifth grade, had a horrifying experience in the school bathroom,” a mother told the Loudoun County School Board. “A girl from his class walked in, stood next to him, and stared at his penis while he used a urinal. He was embarrassed, mortified, he came home in tears. Since then, my high school daughter spent years sharing locker rooms and bathrooms with boys. The toll on our family has been significant.

Some people have called on the school board to keep their policy.

“I commend LCPS and ask that you continue to protect trans kids,” one community member told the school board.

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McMahon’s office is giving the school districts 10 days to reverse course. If they don’t, McMahon said she is forwarding the matter to the U.S. Department of Justice.

“We mean business about this,” said McMahon. “Title IX is very important. And you know, women and girls fought for a long time to be able to have the rights to have their own sports, their own changing and intimate facilities, and they won. It’s the law. And so we need to abide by the law.”

“What would your message be to these five superintendents in Northern Virginia right now?” Minock asked McMahon.

“Obey the law,” said McMahon. “Title IX is the law. I mean, it was just recently the Biden administration's interpretation of Title IX was overturned. So it is back to its original interpretation, which is identification of women and men and the basis of biological sex. And I think we need to identify what we mean by sex. It's male and female period.”

“If Loudoun County Public Schools and the other four Northern Virginia School Districts choose to keep their existing locker room and bathroom policies despite your call the federal government's call, what happens, for instance, are you going to withhold federal funding to these schools?” Minock asked McMahon.

“That is an option, and they are at risk of losing the federal funding,” said McMahon.

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7News has reached out to the five school districts for a response and asked if they are going to change their policies in light of the U.S. Department of Education’s findings.