Civil Rights ClassroomCivil Rights Expertise and Insight
The Department of Education recently issued a Dear Colleague letter reminding public K12 schools of their responsibilities under Title IX to respond to reports of sexual harassment and abuse of students by staff members. Effectively addressing reports of student-on-student and staff-on-student sexual harassment is a critically important function.
In a Title IX dispute, the parties are entitled to be supported by advisors of their choice throughout the grievance process. Additionally, in the higher education setting, if a party does not have their own advisor, the institution is required to provide an advisor for the purpose of conducting cross-examination. Are the advisors supporting parties at your school effectively helping their advisees through the process? Are they conducting effective cross-examination to help the decisionmaker understand the evidence supporting disputed facts? Or are they interrupting and delaying proceedings and making it harder for your Title IX team to do their job?
On April 17, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education issued a press release finding four Kansas school districts violated federal education laws based on their policies relating to transgender students. This investigation is the latest in a series of investigations and press releases signaling a shift in how the Office for Civil Rights investigates, announces findings and seeks compliance.
In the spring of 2024, DOJ published new ADA regulations requiring public entities covered by Title II of the ADA, including public school districts, colleges, and universities, to bring their websites, apps, course content, and new social media posts into compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA. Initially, the deadline for compliance was April 24, 2026, for entities serving jurisdictions with a population greater than 50,000 people, and April 26, 2027, for entities serving smaller jurisdictions. Just four days before the initial deadline, DOJ published an Interim Final Rule postponing the compliance dates by one year. While the compliance deadline under the ADA regulations has been pushed back, the ADA itself, as well as Section 504, already require accessible websites and online resources, so public schools should continue their efforts to meet these standards.
If you’ve ever tried to follow Title IX requirements using only your district’s policy manual, you know it can feel like assembling a puzzle without all the pieces. Many school district policies say something along the lines of: “The Superintendent will develop procedures that meet all the requirements of the federal regulations,” such as reasonably prompt time frames, required notices, terms “as defined by law,” equitable investigation procedures, appeal grounds, etc. That’s fine in theory — but in practice, it often means the policy itself doesn’t actually include the timelines, definitions, or required steps the Title IX regulations demand.
Unless your district has a comprehensive and compliant set of procedures, staff end up hunting through multiple policies, administrative regulations, and old training materials, trying to figure out what to do next. Meanwhile, parents are left trying to interpret a process that isn’t clearly explained anywhere in one place.
To help districts avoid that struggle, we created a single, comprehensive, and customizable Title IX procedure that includes all the required pieces, right in one document.
Reviewing your Title IX sexual harassment policy, procedures, and forms on a regular basis is always a good idea. You may want to make changes to be more user-friendly, clarify ambiguities, and respond to difficulties encountered with the current policy. This year, as we head back to school, there is also one required change: the definition of sexual assault.
