On the same day Taylor Swift dropped her new album at midnight, the US Department of Education quickly followed and released the long-anticipated new Title IX final regulations. In what seems a bit like déjà vu, the regulations were released on April 19 and will go into effect August 1, 2024, giving educational institutions 103 days to review them, adopt updated policies and procedures and train their employees on the new regulations for the start of the new school year.
You will be seeing much more about this in the weeks to come. As a brief overview, the new regulations broaden the definition of sexual harassment under Title IX and expand the scope of covered conduct to include certain activities that occur outside of a specific education program or activity as well as certain activity occurring outside of the United States. The regulations also make clear that Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, sexual orientation and gender identity.
The new regulations also explicitly prohibit discrimination against students and employees on the basis of pregnancy and related conditions and detail specific modifications for pregnant students to allow equal access to an educational institute’s education programs and activities.
In addition, the regulations detail the required policies and procedures that must be put in place by August 1, 2024, and options for what grievance and investigation processes are used to address complaints of sexual harassment under Title IX. The new regulations also detail the training that must be provided to those who play a role in the Title IX process.
In all, there are 1,561 pages of regulations and commentary. You may view them online here.
In light of the new regulations, Title IX on the Nines May 9th edition will be a one-hour overview of the new regulations and what educational institutions must do now to be ready for the new regulations’ official implementation on August 1, 2024.
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