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Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (“Title IX”) is an important civil rights law that broadly protects against sex discrimination in education. The Biden administration’s Department of Education recently proposed new Title IX rules addressing sexual harassment and other sex discrimination in schools. Many of these proposed changes undo harmful rules put in place in 2020 by the Trump administration (“2020 rules”) that reversed decades of Title IX policy and significantly weakened protections against sexual harassment in education.
For the last two years, students have been subjected to the harmful 2020 rules, which push schools to ignore sexual harassment and require unfair, survivor-hostile procedures for school investigations of sexual harassment that are not required for any other type of student or staff misconduct. The 2020 rules are rooted in deeply offensive and sexist stereotypes and myths that consider reports of sexual harassment to be uniquely less credible than reports of other misconduct, therefore requiring more scrutiny of those reports.
Unfortunately, the 2020 rules remain in effect until a new rule is finalized. But recently the Biden administration moved that process forward by proposing a new Title IX rule, which would restore and enhance many of Title IX’s protections; now YOU have an opportunity to let the Department of Education know what you think about their proposed changes.
Join the NWLC’s public comment to the Department of Education, which supports its proposed changes to the Title IX rule that:
- Restore decades-long protections against sexual harassment in schools
- Prohibit discrimination against LGBTQI+ students and allow students to access bathrooms and locker rooms according to their gender identity.
- Protect pregnant and parenting students from discrimination and ensure accommodations are in place to support their learning
The comment also urges the Biden Administration to move swiftly on its plan for additional changes to make clear that all girls and young women have a fair and equal chance to play school sports, including transgender and intersex students.
To learn more about the proposed rule changes, read this. You can read our public comment to the Department of Education here, and join the comment until Friday, September 2, 2022.