SACRAMENTO, California. — The Lake Tahoe school district is caught between competing policies in California and Nevada regarding transgender student-athletes, and the dispute could change how the district competes.
High schools in California's Tahoe-Truckee Unified School District, located in mountainous, snowy terrain near the Nevada border, have competed for decades in the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association, or NIAA. This allowed sports teams to avoid frequent and potentially dangerous travel in bad winter weather to compete further west, county officials said.
But in April, the Nevada association voted to require students in gender-segregated sports programs to play on teams corresponding to their sex assigned at birth. This is a departure from the previous approach of allowing individual schools to set their own standards. The move has raised questions about how Tahoe-Truckee County will remain in the Nevada association while complying with a California law that says students can play on teams that match their gender identity.
The California Department of Education now requires the district to join the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) by the start of the next school year.
District Superintendent Kerstin Kramer said at a school board meeting this week that the requirement puts the district in a difficult position.
“No matter what authorities we answer 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 University, district officials said in a letter to the education department. But a former student filed a complaint with the state in June after the board decided to continue athletics in Nevada, Kramer said.
The dispute comes amid a nationwide battle over rights of transgender youth in which states restricted the participation of transgender girls on girls' sports teams, banned gender confirmation surgeries for minors, and required parents to be notified if a child changes pronouns at school. At least 24 states have laws banning transgender women and girls from participating in certain sports. Some policies were blocked in court.
Meanwhile, California is fighting the Trump administration in court over its transgender athlete policy. President Donald Trump issued a decree in February sought to ban transgender women and girls from participating in women's athletics. The US Department of Justice also sued the California Department of Education The company said in July that its policy of allowing transgender girls to participate on girls' sports teams violated federal law.
And Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, signedlaws aimed at protecting trans youth, shocked party allies in March when he raised questions on his podcast about the fairness of trans women and girls competing against other athletes. His office had no comment on the Tahoe-Truckee Unified case but said Newsom “rejects the cynical right-wing attempt to weaponize this debate as an excuse to vilify individual children.”
The state Department of Education said in a statement that all California districts must comply with the law regardless of which state athletic association they belong to.
At a Tahoe Truckee school board meeting this week, some parents and one student said they opposed allowing trans girls to compete on girls' teams.
“I don’t see how it would be fair for female athletes to compete against biological males because they are stronger, taller and faster,” said Ava Cockrum, a Truckee High School junior and member of the track team. “It's just not fair.”
But Beth Curtis, a civil rights attorney whose children attended Tahoe-Truckee Unified schools, said the district should fight the NIAA to argue that its policies regarding trans student-athletes violate the Nevada Constitution.
The district developed a plan to transition to the California federation by the 2028-2029 school year after state officials ordered it to take action. A response from the Department of Education is awaited.
Curtis doesn't think the state will allow the district to delay joining the CIF, the California Federation, for another two years, noting that the education department is vigorously defending its law against the Trump administration: “They're not going to fight to enforce the law and at the same time tell you, 'OK, you can ignore it for two years.'
Tahoe-Truckee Unified's two high schools with athletic programs, located at an elevation of about 6,000 feet (1,800 meters), compete against California and Nevada teams in nearby mountain towns, as well as others more distant and near sea level. If the district were to become part of the California Federation, Tahoe-Truckee Unified teams might have to travel more often in bad weather through a dangerous mountain pass — about 7,000 feet (2,100 meters) above sea level — to reach schools further from state lines.
Coalville High School, a small California school in the Eastern Sierra near the Nevada border, also has long been a member of the Nevada association, said Heidi Torix, superintendent of the Eastern Sierra Unified School District. Torix said the school complies with California law regarding transgender athletes.
California has not given the school a similar change of venue order. The California Department of Education did not respond to requests for comment on whether it had warned any other districts outside California about possible noncompliance with state policy.
State Assemblywoman Heather Hadwick, a Republican who represents a large region of northern California bordering 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 implications of this decision—not in theory, but in practice—where weather, geography and safety matter,” Hadwick said.
