The U.S. Department of Education’s will define sexual harassment, including sexual assault, as unlawful sex discrimination and require school administrators to take additional steps to respond equitably and promptly to sexual misconduct incidents. The final rule, which takes effect Aug. 14, adds sexual harassment to the historic Title IX gender equity law, which ensures no person can be excluded from participating in any education program or activity on the basis of sex. “Too many students have lost access to their education because their school inadequately responded when a student filed a complaint of sexual harassment or sexual assault,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, in a news release. “This new regulation requires schools to act in meaningful ways to support survivors of sexual misconduct, without sacrificing important safeguards to ensure a fair and transparent process. We can and must continue to fight sexual misconduct in our nation’s schools, and this rule makes certain that fight continues.” According to the Department of Education, key provisions of the new Title IX regulation include:

• Defines sexual harassment to include sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking, as unlawful discrimination on the basis of sex;
• Provides a consistent, legally sound framework on which survivors, the accused, and schools can rely;
• Requires schools to offer clear, accessible options for any person to report sexual harassment;
• Empowers survivors to make decisions about how a school responds to incidents of sexual harassment;
• Requires the school to offer survivors supportive measures, such as class or dorm reassignments or no-contact orders;
• Protects K-12 students by requiring elementary and secondary schools to respond promptly when any school employee has notice of sexual harassment;
• Shields survivors from having to come face-to-face with the accused during a hearing and from answering questions posed personally by the accused;
• Requires schools to offer an equal right of appeal for both parties to a Title IX proceeding;  
• Gives schools flexibility to use technology to conduct Title IX investigations and hearings remotely; and
• Protects students and faculty by prohibiting schools from using Title IX in a manner that deprives students and faculty of rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.

“The new Title IX regulation is a game-changer. It establishes that schools and colleges must take sexual harassment seriously, while also ensuring a fair process for everyone involved. It marks the end of the false dichotomy of either protecting survivors, while ignoring due process, or protecting the accused, while disregarding sexual misconduct,” said Assistant Secretary Kenneth L. Marcus of the Office for Civil Rights, which enforces Title IX. “There is no reason why educators cannot protect all of their students — and under this regulation there will be no excuses for failing to do so. In a string of recent major OCR Title IX cases, and in a large number of investigations over the last few years, we have shown that we will hold institutions accountable under federal civil rights laws. This regulation provides important new tools that will strengthen our ability to do so.” ACSA Governmental Relations advocates will be working with various stakeholders to ensure that critical information on the new Title IX implementation will be available to ACSA members. .