Education Department removes nonbinary gender ID option from financial aid form
WASHINGTON – College and high school students will no longer be able to identify themselves as nonbinary when applying for federal financial aid, the Trump administration said Tuesday.
The top official overseeing the nation's universities said the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, will be altered to no longer include the gender-inclusive term for the 2025-26 enrollment cycle.
Officials at the Department of Education made the decision pursuant to the president's recent executive order requiring that federal agencies only recognize two sexes, male and female.
"Families and students depend on the FAFSA form to plan their futures, and any release delays or unnecessary politicization of the form is wholly unacceptable," said James Bergeron, the acting education under secretary, in a statement.
Read more: A college LGBTQ+ center disappeared. It wasn’t the only one.
Completing and submitting the FAFSA is the centerpiece of families' efforts to get help paying for college. A 2022 study from the University of California Los Angeles' Williams Institute, the leading research center on LGBTQ+ law and public policy, found that queer and transgender students are four times more likely than their non-LGBTQ+ peers to choose a college out of state to find acceptance. Attending a university out of state is typically more expensive for the average student.
Apart from the "male" and "female" options on the FAFSA, students can also decline to identify their gender. According to guidance that remained on the Education Department's website as of Tuesday evening, trans students should select the gender with which they identify at the time they complete the form.
Zachary Schermele is an education reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump administration removes nonbinary ID marker from FAFSA form
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