Colleges: Last News

The Education Department sent notice to K-12 schools and colleges on Friday that it would revert to policies put out during President Trump’s first term that limited schools’ liability in sexual misconduct cases and afforded stronger rights to students accused of sexual harassment and assault. The letter also instructed schools not to expect the department to enforce a revised interpretation of Title IX, the 1972 law prohibiting sex discrimination in educational programs that receive federal funding.

That change, announced during the Biden administration, broadened the law’s scope to recognize harassment or exclusion based on sexual orientation and gender identity to be a form of discrimination. The revised guidance issued Friday instructed educators to once again adopt new standards for enforcing codes against sexual violence and harassment on campus, a process they have had to undertake every four years as rules have whipsawed back and forth under the last four administrations.

The old rules, set in 2018, eased the standards by which the department assessed schools’ liability in sexual misconduct cases, giving schools room to follow different evidentiary standards and appeals processes in investigations. They also required schools to hold live hearings in which accusers and students accused of sexual assault could cross-examine one another, including through a lawyer.

In a break from recent changes surrounding the law, formally known as Title IX of the Education Amendments Act, the letter sent Friday stated that the changes in its implementations could begin immediately, after a federal judge in Kentucky blocked the Biden administration’s revisions from taking effect. That ruling was largely based on the Biden-era rules’ increased protections for transgender students, which the judge found to be unconstitutional.

The letter also leaned on Mr. Trump’s executive authority to justify the immediate return to the old standards, circumventing the more standard practice