Religious schools exempt from USDA's Title IX rules, can keep meal funding

• Under the new rules, schools would need to update their policies on discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity in order to remain eligible for federal meal funding.
• This triggered a backlash from religious institutions, which said the new rules infringed on their freedoms of speech and religion, according to The Hill.

Driving the news: The USDA clarified its position on Friday, noting that educational institutions can obtain an exemption if there is "a conflict between Title IX and a school’s governing religious tenets."

• Religious schools do not have to submit a written request to claim an exemption, the USDA noted.
• The decision comes just a week after the Biden administration granted an exemption to a religious school in Florida. Grant Park Christian Academy had filed a lawsuit in late July, claiming that complying with the new rules would harm its "educational mission, free speech and religious exercise."