The Trump administration said Friday it has given California 60 days to remove all mention of gender identity from its federally funded sexual education curriculum or the state risks losing grant funding.

The directive comes a few months after the administration launched a probe into California’s Personal Responsibility Education Program, or PREP – a national $75 million program that teaches youth and teens about abstinence and contraception to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Donald Trump officials said at the time the investigation was necessary to ensure the material being taught was “age-appropriate and medically accurate,” but LGBTQ advocates worried the review would lead to the sort of ban announced this week. The program is overseen by the Administration for Children and Families within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, but varies from state to state.

The agency said that after reviewing California’s program materials, agency leaders “uncovered egregious content” surrounding gender identity that have “nothing” to do with the program’s core mission: “to provide youth with medically accurate, fact-based education.”

“The Trump administration will not tolerate the use of federal funds for programs that indoctrinate our children,” said the agency’s acting assistant secretary Andrew Gradison in a statement. “The disturbing gender ideology content in California’s PREP materials is both unacceptable and well outside the program’s core purpose. ACF remains committed to radical transparency and providing accountability so that parents know what their children are being taught in schools.”

In recent months, the Trump administration has threatened to pull federal funding from California several times over its policies supporting transgender students. Just last month, President Donald Trump threatened “large-scale” funding cuts to the state if a Southern California transgender high school athlete who qualified for the state track and field championship was allowed to compete, and his administration has threatened to slash funds for San Jose State University for allowing a transgender volleyball athlete to compete on its women’s team.

The California Department of Public Health, which oversees the PREP program at the state level, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday, but previously said it would comply with the agency’s investigation.

The state health department receives $5.8 million under the program to teach safe sex practices, HIV-prevention and abstinence to high-needs populations, including LGBTQ youth, homeless youth, minorities, migrant farmworkers, incarcerated youth and foster youth in classrooms, foster homes, homeless shelters and juvenile justice facilities.

The program also teaches youth about forming healthy relationships, life skills, physical and reproductive development and identity. The program’s curriculum includes language related to gender identity, sexual orientation and LGBTQ youth.

California’s PREP program has reached over 40,000 youth throughout the state and grant funds support 22 agencies – county health departments, family resource centers and Planned Parenthood – in 20 counties with the highest need for sex health education and services, according to the California Department of Public Health.

Separate from the PREP program, California state law requires that students in grades 7-12 receive sexual health and HIV prevention education at least once in middle school and once in high school, but the state does not have a statewide sexual education curriculum so school districts, school boards and county offices of education are in charge of choosing the course materials being taught in classrooms.

The law states the material must meet core standards and be age appropriate and medically accurate and sexual education in California is also required to include all genders and sexual orientations, as well as discuss gender identity and expression.

But those requirements put the state at odds with the current administration. Since he took office in January, Trump has signed several anti-trans executive orders, including orders that only recognize two sexes, limit gender-affirming treatments for youth and prohibit transgender players from participating in high school and college sports.

In March, the administration initiated an investigation into California’s education department over a controversial gender notification law the state passed last summer, alleging that it encouraged schools to conceal information from parents about their children’s sexuality.

In a Friday letter to the California Department of Public Health, the Administration for Children and Families said the agency initiated the medical accuracy review to determine if California’s approach to biological sex in its program materials was medically accurate.

The letter identified a handful of content the agency deemed inappropriate, including a middle school lesson that discussed people identifying as “transgender or gender queer,” a teacher’s guide that defined gender identity, and a high school lesson that discussed gender identity and gender-related topics like “genderqueer” and social versus medical transitioning.

“If someone’s sex assigned at birth does not match with their gender identity, or how they feel inside, they might identify as ‘transgender,’” one middle school lesson said, according to the agency’s letter. “For example: if someone is born with female body parts, hormones, and DNA, and inside they feel like a man.”

While the Trump administration’s letter acknowledged that California’s program materials were previously approved by the agency under the Biden administration, the agency said gender ideology is “both irrelevant to teaching abstinence and contraception and unrelated to any of the adult preparation subjects” required for the federally funded program.

The agency gave the state until August 19 to remove all content related to gender ideology or risk “additional enforcement,” such as the termination of federal funding. The agency said it is also investigating program materials for grant recipients outside California to ensure all material is “free from gender ideology content.”

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