Last month, the U.S. Department of Education (“Department”) released its long-awaited and controversial final rule regarding sexual harassment and other forms of sex discrimination prohibited under Title IX. These new regulations are effective on August 14, 2020.
The key points of the new rule are outlined below. At the end of this Client Alert is a series of questions and considerations that institutions must address in the very near future in order to be in compliance by the effective date.
Background
The Title IX statute was passed in 1972. The statute says, in its entirety, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. (20 U.S.C. § 1681(a).)
In the years following the passage of Title IX, a line of court decisions emerged that found sexual harassment and sexual assault to be forms of sex discrimination prohibited by Title IX. However, neither the initial implementing regulations promulgated in 1975 nor any subsequent regulations addressed this expanded view. Instead, the Department issued a series of guidance documents, beginning in 1997 and continuing through 2017.