Educational institutions will now revert to the Title IX regulations first issued during President Donald Trump’s first presidency, the U.S. Department of Education wrote in a “Dear Colleague” letter on Friday.
The past two weeks could be called transformational for K12 and higher education policy. In its latest move, the Department of Education declared it is doing away with the “unlawful abuse of regulatory power” under Biden-area Title IX reforms.
The department is now enforcing protections based on biological sex in K12 schools and higher education institutions. Trump’s 2020 ruling also ensures that free speech is protected on campus and allows for stronger due process protections for students during Title IX sexual misconduct proceedings.
“The Biden Administration’s failed attempt to rewrite Title IX was an unlawful abuse of regulatory power and an egregious slight to women and girls,” Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said in a public statement.
“Under the Trump Administration, the Education Department will champion equal opportunity for all Americans, including women and girls, by protecting their right to safe and separate facilities and activities in schools, colleges and universities.”
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Biden’s changes, which were scheduled to take effect on Aug. 1, were met with a wave of lawsuits. A federal judge in Kentucky, for instance, struck down the regulations earlier this year saying they violated the Constitution.
“Put simply, there is nothing in the text or statutory design of Title IX to suggest that discrimination ‘on the basis of sex’ means anything other than it has since Title IX’s inception—that recipients of federal funds under Title IX may not treat a person worse than another similarly-situated individual on the basis of the person’s sex, i.e., male or female,” Judge Danny C. Reeves of the U.S. District Court for the Easter District of Kentucky wrote.
Here’s a brief overview of Trump’s 2020 Title IX regulations according to a fact sheet provided by the Department of Education:
Ensuring students can learn without facing sexual harassment and assault
- The regulation codifies that sexual harassment, including sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence and stalking, is prohibited.
- The regulation holds schools accountable for failures to respond equitably and promptly to incidents of sexual misconduct while also empowering survivors to make decisions about how a school responds to incidents of sexual harassment.
Ensuring schools can no longer inflict longstanding harm against students before providing basic, fair procedures
- Due process protections will be given to students facing accusations of sexual misconduct.
- The regulation prescribes a transparent grievance process that treats the accused as innocent until proven guilty, requires the school to state a standard of evidence and requires the school to provide a written decision and rationale.
The Department’s Title IX overview sheds more light on its guiding principles and sex discrimination regulations.
