Sacramento, California– A Lake Tahoe school district is caught between California and Nevada’s competing policies on transgender student athletes, a dispute that could change where the district’s students compete.
High schools in California’s Tahoe Truckee Unified School District, located in a mountainous, snow-prone region near the border with Nevada, have competed for decades in the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association, or NIAA. District officials say this has allowed sports teams to avoid frequent and potentially dangerous trips in bad winter weather for competitions farther west.
But the Nevada Assembly voted last April to require students in gender-segregated athletic programs to play on teams that correspond with their sex assigned at birth, a departure from the previous approach that allowed individual schools to set their own standards. The move raised questions about how the Tahoe-Truckee area could remain in the Nevada league while following California law, which stipulates that students can play on teams that match their gender identity.
Now, the California Department of Education is asking the district to join the California Interscholastic Federation, or CIF, by the beginning of the next school year.
District Superintendent Kirsten Kramer said at this week’s school board meeting that the request puts the district in a difficult position.
“No matter what authority we adhere to, we are leaving students behind,” she said. “So we’re stuck.”
There are currently no known transgender student-athletes competing in high school sports at Tahoe-Truckee Unified, district officials told the Department of Education in a letter. A former student filed a complaint with the state in June after the board decided to commit to Nevada athletics, Kramer said.
The conflict comes amid a national battle over… Rights of transgender youth States have banned transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports teams, banned gender-affirming surgeries for minors, and required parents to be notified if a child changes pronouns at school. At least 24 states have laws prohibiting transgender women and girls from participating in certain sports competitions. Some policies have been blocked in court.
Meanwhile, the state of California is fighting the Trump administration in court over policies for transgender athletes. President Donald Trump He issued an executive order In February, it aimed to ban transgender women and girls from participating in women’s athletics. Also the US Department of Justice He filed a lawsuit against the California Department of Education In July, it claimed that its policy allowing transgender girls to compete on girls’ sports teams violated federal law.
And Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who did so I fellLaws Aiming to protect transgender youth, The party’s allies were shocked In March when he raised questions on his podcast about the fairness of trans women and girls competing against other female athletes. His office did not comment on the Tahoe-Truckee Unified case, but said Newsom “rejects the right’s cynical attempt to use this debate as an excuse to denigrate individual children.”
The state Department of Education said in a statement that all California districts must follow the law regardless of which state athletic association they join.
At a Tahoe Truckee school board meeting this week, some parents and a student said they were opposed to allowing trans girls to participate on girls’ teams.
“I don’t see how it would be fair for female athletes to compete against a biological male because they’re stronger, taller, faster,” said Ava Cockram, a Truckee High School student and member of the track and field team. “It’s not fair.”
But Beth Curtis, a civil rights attorney whose children attend schools in Tahoe-Truckee Unified, said the district should fight the NIAA from enforcing its transgender student sports policy as a violation of the Nevada Constitution.
The district has formulated a plan to transition to the California Union by the 2028-2029 school year after state officials ordered it to take action. Waiting for the Department of Education’s response.
Curtis doesn’t think the state will let the district delay joining the CIF, California’s federation, for another two years, noting that the Department of Education is aggressively defending its law against the Trump administration: “They’re not going to fight to uphold the law and at the same time say to you, ‘Well, you can ignore it for two years.’
Tahoe-Truckee Unified’s two high schools, which offer sports programs and are located at an elevation of about 6,000 feet (1,800 meters), compete against teams from California and Nevada in nearby mountain towns — and others farther away and closer to sea level. If the district moves to the California Union, Tahoe-Truckee Unified teams may have to frequently travel in poor weather conditions over a perilous mountain pass — about 7,000 feet (2,100 m) above a lake — to reach schools far from state lines.
Colville High School, a small California school in the eastern Sierra near the Nevada border, has also been a longtime member of the Nevada Assembly, said Heidi Torex, superintendent of the Eastern Sierra Unified School District. Torex said the school adheres to California state law regarding transgender athletes.
California has not similarly ordered the school to switch locations in which it competes. The California Department of Education did not respond to requests for comment about whether it had warned any other non-UC districts about possible non-compliance with the state policy.
State Assemblywoman Heather Hadwick, a Republican who represents a large area of Northern California that borders Nevada, said Tahoe-Truckee Unified should not be forced to join the CIF.
“I urge the California Department of Education and state officials to fully consider the real-world consequences of this decision — not in theory, but on the ground — where weather, geography and safety matter,” Hadwick said.