The U.S. Department of Education rejected a petition a transgender student filed against George Fox University, ending a three-month dispute.
The student, who goes by the name Jayce and identifies as a man, asked to live in male student housing at the university, but the school said he could live only in a single apartment. The case gained attention in April, when the student’s mother started an online petition, which has garnered more than 21,000 signatures, asking George Fox to reverse its decision.
Inside Higher Education reports that the Department of Education in May granted the university a religious exemption to Title IX’s requirements that recipients of federal funding not “offer different services or benefits related to housing” to students based on sex. On those grounds, the federal office denied Jayce’s petition.