Franczek’s Education Law Team is pleased to offer Title IX Compliance training to prepare your team for the 2021-2022 school year. As our trainees have come to expect from the Franczek team, we will engage participants with the material through live polling, discussion, theoretical problems, and role-playing scenarios. If you are interested in Title IX training scheduled specifically for your school or district, please contact TitleIX@franczek.com.
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OCR Issues Q&A on Title IX Regulations on Sexual Harassment
Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued new, anticipated guidance concerning the Department’s current regulations related to sexual harassment. The guidance, titled Questions and Answers on the Title IX Regulations on Sexual Harassment, clarifies how OCR interprets schools’ existing obligations under the 2020 amendments. The Q&A addresses 67 questions covering a variety of topics ranging from general obligations under Title IX, sexual harassment, formal complaints, and participation in the grievance process to supportive measures, time frames, live hearings, informal resolution, and retaliation. The Q&A also includes an appendix containing example policy provisions addressing particular regulatory requirements.
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We’ve Got You Covered: Website and Grievance Procedure Updates Required Today for Title IX Compliance
Today is the day. After almost two years of thinking about whether the proposed Title IX regulations would go into effect at all, starting today we are operating under the new rules at schools, colleges, and universities across the country. In addition to preparing for an unprecedented school year opening, we know you’re also on top of all the training and policy revisions needed for compliance. (You are, right? If not, find more information here.) But don’t forget the requirement to update your website with certain information, including your nondiscrimination statement, Title IX Coordinator information, training materials used to train your Title IX Team, and a provisional grievance procedure if your policies are not yet finalized, by today. In our experience, most higher education institutions already have extensive Title IX presences on their websites, so you may just need to make a few adjustments. But this requirement is just the kind that might slip under the radar for many K-12 schools. Our team at Franczek P.C. has put together website and procedural language to help schools easily comply. Reach out to us at titleIX@franczek.com for more information. The following are the requirements from the regulations as to what an institution must post on its websites by tomorrow to be in compliance.
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Posting Title IX Training Materials: Copyright Considerations for Educational Institutions
As we explained in an earlier blog post, one of the requirements of the new Title IX regulations–the mandate to post all materials used to train Title IX personnel on a school’s website–has understandably raised questions for K-12 and higher education institutions regarding copyright compliance. Today, I was thrilled to host Ashly Boesche, a
Franczek P.C. Offers Title IX Toolkit, Training, and Services for Educational Institutions
Almost one-and-a-half years after releasing its proposed rule, the U.S. Department of Education issued new Title IX regulations on May 6, 2020. Because the 2020 Title IX regulations become effective on August 14, 2020, educational institutions must move quickly to come into compliance during what are already particularly trying times. To assist your institution with
The Illinois K-12 Title IX T.E.A.M. Title IX Educational Administrators Meetup
Come join us to unwind Title IX while also unwinding with colleagues and friends!
We know the challenges facing administrators responsible for Title IX compliance at the K-12 level, with the August 14 effective date for the new Title IX rules looming. We also know that collaboration with other K-12 Title IX administrators, though indispensable,
Ankura Webinar—Advisors in Title IX Investigations: Legal, Regulatory, and Public Policy Considerations
REGISTER HERE!
July 21, 2020 at 11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m. CT
In this session of Ankura’s monthly Title IX and Civil Rights Investigations webinar series, Dan Schorr and Alyssa-Rae McGinn will be joined by Franczek P.C. partner Jackie Gharapour Wernz for a discussion of the important issues related to complainant and respondent advisors in
Six Weeks to the New Title IX: Here’s How Your Institution Can Meet the Deadline
When I was studying for the bar many, many years ago, I remember waking up about six weeks before the exam with a sinking feeling in my stomach, wondering “How am I ever going get this all finished in time?!” I can imagine many educational leaders are feeling the same dread looking at the calendar this week, wondering how in the world their institution is going to come into compliance with the new Title IX regulations by the August 14, 2020 implementation date. It’s not a matter of lack of effort–just like I did that summer before the bar, I know that you all have been working diligently to get everything done. But the sheer amount of work there is to do can be overwhelming. That morning, during my bar summer, after I woke up I sat down and came up with a plan for how to get everything done by the date of the exam, and began checking things off the list one by one. That, too, is the approach I recommend you take right now to help your educational institution down the path to compliance by August 14. Here’s how to do it.
Continue Reading Six Weeks to the New Title IX: Here’s How Your Institution Can Meet the Deadline
Don’t Count on Lawsuits to Save Schools from the New Title IX Regs
For anyone taking the ostrich approach to the Department of Education’s Title IX regulations—sticking their heads in the sand and hoping that a lawsuit will come along to blow these pesky regulations away—there may be some hope. Two recently-filed lawsuits, one by attorneys general from 17 states, including Illinois, and the District Columbia and another by the state of New York, seek to invalidate the new regulations under the Administrative Procedure Act or, at the very least, obtain an extension of the August 14, 2020 implementation date. Despite these and other pending lawsuits—including one from the ACLU filed in May—schools, colleges, and universities should continue to prepare to implement the new Title IX regulations on August 14, 2020. Educational institutions may wish to consider including language in new policies and procedures allowing quick changes if a challenge to the regulations proves successful. This would allow a return to governing documents currently in effect without normal delays inherent in educational policymaking if warranted by a court ruling.
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More Title IX Turmoil: OCR Athletics Decision Puts Transgender Rights in Flux
It seems like all we talk about these days in the Title IX world is sexual harassment, as we scramble to implement new Title IX regulations that go into effect in August. Yet, this week brought significant news with respect to another side of Title IX—the rights of transgender students under the Federal law.
In a Letter of Impending Enforcement Action from May that came to light yesterday, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) threatened to take away federal funding from six Connecticut public high schools and the state’s athletics conference for allowing “biologically male” transgender female students to compete on girls athletic teams, which OCR found violates the Title IX rights of the cisgender female students on the teams. According to OCR, female students, unlike their male counterparts, were denied the ability to compete “on a level playing field” in athletics by not being allowed to compete against only cisgender female students.
We know that the Department has been pulling back on Title IX protections for transgender students for some time, so why is this news? Because as Title IX has become less useful for transgender advocates, they have turned to state laws (including in Illinois), which have been instrumental in the fight for access to facilities and activities based on gender identity in recent years.
Federal law generally preempts state law, however, so if Title IX prohibits providing equal access because of impacts on cisgender female students, schools may be required to disregard state law to avoid violating Title IX. Although the OCR decision appears to be limited to the realm of athletics, we have come to learn that with OCR these days, nothing is certain. This OCR letter, coupled with an imminent decision from the U.S. Supreme Court in the Title VII case Harris Funeral Homes v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, threaten to drastically upset the certainty for educational institutions regarding the laws governing transgender rights in schools.
Continue Reading More Title IX Turmoil: OCR Athletics Decision Puts Transgender Rights in Flux