Washington (CNN) A spokeswoman for the Department of Education confirmed on Monday that the department is no longer investigating civil rights complaints from transgender students banned from using bathrooms conforming with their gender identity.

The development reverses 2016 guidance by the Obama administration that directed public school students to use the bathroom that matched their gender identity. The Obama administration's position was that Title IX, the federal law that bans sex discrimination in schools, protects transgender students.

The Education Department under the Trump administration has a different interpretation of Title IX.

"Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, not gender identity," Education Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Hill told CNN Monday. "Therefore the question is whether a student (regardless of gender identity) has been discriminated against on the basis of sex. Where students, including transgender students, are penalized or harassed for failing to conform to sex-based stereotypes, that is sex discrimination prohibited by Title IX. In the case of bathrooms, however, longstanding regulations provide that separating facilities on the basis of sex is not a form of discrimination prohibited by Title IX."

"The secretary would contend that it is the job of Congress or the courts, not the bureaucracy, to determine whether or not the term 'sex' under Title IX encompasses 'gender identity,'" Hill added.

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