On April 24, 2015, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released a guidance package that reminds educational institutions of their responsibilities under Title IX. This guidance package, issued approximately one year after OCR’s lengthy clarification of its April 2011 Dear Colleague Letter, includes a Title IX resource guide, a letter to Title IX coordinators, and yet another Title IX Dear Colleague Letter.
The guidance package largely reiterates previous OCR guidance. It does, however, contain some noteworthy highlights, such as:
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The Title IX coordinator must have sufficient authority, support, and training to perform job duties.
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The Title IX coordinator should report directly to senior leadership, such as the college or university president.
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Institutions should have a full-time Title IX coordinator to minimize the risks of a conflict of interest; larger institutions may need two Title IX coordinators.
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To reduce the costs of republishing printed materials, institutions may identify the Title IX coordinator solely by position title in printed materials but must include “complete and current” contact information for the coordinator on their websites. The Title IX coordinator’s e-mail address must be included in notices of nondiscrimination.
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Institutions are encouraged to create a Title IX webpage, with information such as policies and procedures and contact information for the coordinator. There should be a link to the Title IX webpage on the institution’s home page.
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Title IX coordinators should receive regular and comprehensive training on all aspects of Title IX compliance. The new Resource Guide from OCR reminds institutions of Title IX’s applicability to areas such as recruiting, admissions, counseling, financial aid, athletics, pregnant and parenting students, single-sex education, employment, and retaliation.
