“Research has always shown a high prevalence of students experiencing sex-based harassment, including sexual assault, and yet this administration is choosing to ignore that issue,” said Shiwali Patel, senior director of education justice at the National Women’s Law Center. Patel, an attorney, worked at OCR on civil rights policy and legal guidance interpreting Title IX between 2016 and 2018, beginning with the Obama administration and then working partway through the first Trump administration.

While Trump’s OCR completed no resolution agreements related to sexual assault and harassment of women and girls in K-12 last year, it did expedite Title IX investigations and proposed resolution agreements to curb transgender students’ access to school facilities and athletic teams aligning with their gender identity. The Trump administration maintains that allowing such access discriminates against cisgender women and girls.

“So it really feels like an upside-down world,” Patel said.