The long-awaited regulation reflects the administration's interpretation of Title IX, the 1972 law that prohibits sex discrimination in schools receiving federal funding. Title IX is best known for governing the equal treatment of women in sports, but it also governs how schools respond to complaints of sexual harassment and assault, which are a major problem on many college campuses. Masu.
The Biden administration is now introducing the regulation to formalize its long-held view that sex discrimination includes discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, and it is an attempt to formalize the long-held view that sex discrimination includes discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, and it is a move against conservative policies across the country. This is a direct challenge.
For example, 10 states require transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms that align with the biological sex assigned to them at birth, according to tracking by the Movement Advancement Project. Some school districts do not use pronouns that correspond to trans students' gender identities. Both situations could constitute violations of Title IX under the new regulations. Furthermore, if a school fails to adequately address bullying based on gender identity or sexual orientation, it may also be a violation of federal law.
“No one should face bullying or discrimination just because of who they are or who they love. Sadly, things like this happen far too often,” said Miguel. Education Secretary Cardona told reporters on a conference call.
The Education Department's Office of Civil Rights investigates allegations of sex discrimination and other cases, and schools that don't comply risk losing federal funding. Officials said the department could investigate if a school potentially discriminates, even if the school complies with state law.
The final regulations also include provisions prohibiting discrimination based on pregnancy, including childbirth, abortion, and breastfeeding. For example, schools must not only be present at student medical appointments, but must also provide breastfeeding students and staff with a clean, dedicated space to express milk.
The combination of these two issues, sexual assault and transgender rights, has garnered significant public attention, with approximately 240,000 public comments submitted on the draft version published in 2022. The new rules will come into effect on August 1, in time for the start of next year. School year.
The final rule dismantles the Trump-era system for handling sexual assault complaints and repeals some of the rules that had strengthened due process rights for defendants. Advocates said these rules are important to ensure students have the opportunity to protect themselves. Critics argued that it prevented sexual assault victims from reporting incidents and turned universities into pseudo-courtrooms.
Education Department officials said they have created a better overall framework that provides equal treatment and balances rights for all involved, while retaining elements that make sense. “A fair process helps ensure that investigations lead to accurate, reliable and effective resolution of sex discrimination complaints,” Cardona said.
Trump administration regulations completed in 2020 require universities to hold live hearings to adjudicate charges, in which defendants can cross-examine witnesses, including the student who alleged the assault. Can be done. Advocates said live hearings are important to establish what really happened when the facts are in dispute, but cross-examination could re-traumatize assault victims. Some people claimed that there was.
Under Biden's new rules, colleges will have more flexibility. The investigator or person adjudicating the case can question witnesses in a separate conference or use a live hearing.
The new rules would also allow schools to set lower standards for convictions. When weighing evidence, we are currently directed to use a “preponderance of the evidence'' standard, but if we are to use that standard in other similar cases, we must use a higher standard of “clear and persuasive'' standards. There is a possibility of selecting “strong evidence”. Under Trump's version, colleges had a choice, but were required to hold themselves to higher standards when using colleges in other settings.
The proposal would also expand the definition of what constitutes sexual harassment, abandoning the narrow definition used under President Donald Trump and expanding who on campus would be responsible for responding to allegations.
Some of President Trump's provisions remained in place. For example, schools will continue to have the option of using informal resolution for discrimination complaints unless the complaint involves a K-12 school employee.
The Biden administration's approach was welcomed by sexual assault victim support groups.
The rules “will make schools safer and more accessible for young people, many of whom have experienced irreparable harm while fighting for protection and support,” Know Your said Emma Grasso Levine, senior manager of Title IX Policy and Programs, a project at IX. Advocates for Youth.
“It is now up to school administrators to act quickly to implement and enforce new rules,” she added.
Sexual assault has long been a serious problem on college campuses, and the Biden administration said in lifting the ban that rates remain “unacceptably high.”
However, the most controversial element of the regulation concerned the rights of transgender students, and it drew immediate criticism.
Administration officials have strengthened their interpretation of the law, pointing to a 2020 Supreme Court ruling that said sex discrimination in employment includes gender identity and sexual orientation. But conservatives argue that Title IX does not include these elements and that accommodations for transgender students could create situations that put other students at risk. For example, they object to transgender women (who they call “biological males”) using women's restrooms and locker rooms.
Rep. Virginia Foxx, RN.C., chair of the House Education Committee, said the regulation is an escalation of Democrats' “derogatory culture war aimed at fundamentally redefining sex and gender.” He said that there is. She said the department was “on the cusp” of making decades of progress for women and girls.
“Clearly, acceptance of biological reality and faithful enforcement of the law is just too big a pill for the State Department to swallow,” she said in a statement.
Still, the administration avoided the controversial issue of athletics, at least for now. A separate rule governing how and when schools can exclude transgender students from women's and women's teams is still under consideration, and officials have not given a timeline for when it will be finalized. . People familiar with the pair's thinking said the delay was to avoid bringing the issue into the presidential race, where President Biden faces a close race against Trump.
A government official who spoke on condition of anonymity in a briefing with reporters Thursday declined to comment on the political reasons for the decision, but noted that the athletics rules were proposed after the main rules of Title IX. .
Polls show that a clear majority of Americans, including a sizable portion of Democrats, oppose allowing transgender athletes to compete on women's or women's teams. Twenty-five states have state-wide bans on participation.
The proposed sports regulations do not allow for such a blanket statewide ban, but do allow school districts to limit participation in narrower areas (e.g., highly competitive high school or college teams). Title IX's main regulations do not address this issue, and officials said the status quo will remain. Still, some argue that the new general ban on discrimination could apply to sports, even if the government did not intend it.
The rules governing how campuses handle complaints of harassment have changed repeatedly in recent years.
The Obama administration issued detailed guidance for schools on how to handle complaints in 2014, but it was later rescinded by Trump's Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos. Her department went through its own painstaking rule-writing process to implement the new system.
As a 2020 presidential candidate, Biden promised to “quickly end” that version if elected, saying he gave universities “a green light to ignore sexual assault and disenfranchise survivors.” Friday's action fulfilled his promise.
Danielle Douglas-Gabriel contributed to this report.