14 | HR Connection
Another Back to School Checklist - Title IX Style How Your District Can Prepare
REVIEW AND REVISE PROCEDURES TO RESPOND TO ALLEGATION OF MISCONDUCT
The new regulations provide a number of requirements that any school’s grievance process for sexual harassment must meet to be compliant with Title IX:
sure everything is in place to stay in compliance with the federal regulations. David Holmes, Associate Attorney
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As a wholly unusual summer comes to a close, school districts are facing an unprecedented degree of difficulty in getting the 2020-21 school year off to a solid start. Besides the pandemic-sized elephant in the room, there are also the looming requirements of new federal regulations under Title IX set to go into effect at virtually the same time that students are slated to return to school. As you likely know, on May 6, 2020, the U.S. Department of Education announced new regulations under Title IX set to go into effect August 14, 2020. The Department claims the new regulations strengthen protections for survivors while also bolstering due process standards for all parties in campus proceedings. For the first time, the regulations officially define sexual harassment—including sexual assault—as impermissible sex discrimination. The new regulations also place additional procedural and evidentiary burdens upon schools to ensure they meet federal expectations in Title IX investigations and adjudications. This article provides a back-toschool roadmap for districts to make
DESIGNATE AND PROVIDE NOTICE FOR THE TITLE IX COORDINATOR
Under the new regulations, schools are now required to designate a specific employee as the coordinator of efforts to comply with Title IX. This employee must hold the title of and be referred to as the “Title IX Coordinator,” and must be given authority to initiate and coordinate the school’s response to a report of sexual misconduct. Districts are required to notify potential reporters (including employees, students, parents, and unions/ other professional organizations) of the name/title, office address, electronic mail address, and telephone number of the employee or employees designated as the Title IX Coordinator, and any person may report sex discrimination to the Title IX Coordinator at any time (including during non-business hours) in person, by mail, by telephone, by email, or by any other means that results in the Title IX Coordinator receiving the report. Because the Title IX Coordinator is the centralized recipient of all Title IX offense reports and the field general for the district’s response, it is critical that this individual be decided upon and announced/ publicized as soon as possible.
1. Equal Access/Treatment Complainants and respondents must be treated equitably by providing remedies to a complainant when a respondent has been found responsible for sexual harassment and by following a compliant grievance process before taking any disciplinary action against a respondent. 2. Objective Evaluation – all evidence, both inculpatory and exculpatory, must be objectively reviewed and credibility of a person cannot be based on their status as complainant, respondent, or witness. 3. Bias Free Training - The Title IX Coordinator and other staff involved in the Title IX response must be free of bias, not have a conflict of interest, and must receive training on Title IX regulations, definitions, and procedures. 4. Presumption of Innocence – The process must operate assuming the respondent is not responsible for the alleged conduct until a final determination is made. 5. Reasonable Time Frames – The process must proceed within a reasonably prompt time frame, including any informal resolution process or the filing and resolving of appeals. Temporary delay is permitted for good cause with written notice to the complainant and respondent of the delay and the reason. 6. Description of Possible Outcomes – the process must include the provision of a description of the range of possible disciplinary sanctions and remedies after a final determination. 7. Standard of Evidence – The process must state whether the standard of evidence is the clear and convincing
