The U.S. Department of Education recently released a broad revision to the rules that govern how educational institutions handle sexual harassment and discrimination, known as Title IX. Schools have until August 2024 to implement the new rule. While increased Title IX protections will benefit some students and staff, the new rules simultaneously limit protections for educators accused of violating Title IX and its expansive protections.

You could face employment discipline or termination, and loss of your educator's certification or license, if accused of violating the new rules. If you are a school staff member facing licensing board charges or school disciplinary action under the new Title IX rule, the Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team can help. We understand that your professional license is your livelihood, and we are ready to protect it as well as your rights. Call 888-535-3686 or contact us online today.

Expanding Title IX Protections

The new Title IX rules explicitly include any discrimination or harassment based on sex including sexual orientation, gender identity, sex stereotypes, and pregnancy or related conditions. Unlawful sex-based harassment under the new rule need no longer be “severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive,” but rather only “severe or pervasive” and both “subjectively and objectively offensive.”

The new rules prohibit significantly more conduct, creating new employment and licensing risks for educators at all levels. Sex-based harassment could include not only sexual slurs, advances, jokes, and innuendo but also statements regarding the social or personal consequences of sex-based conduct or identity. Allegations of sex-based harassment could also arise around issues like the following:

• transgender rights including the right to identify as the gender of one's choice with appropriate use of assumed names and pronouns, access to restrooms and locker rooms according to that choice, and the right to dress according to chosen gender identity;
• LGBTQ+ advocacy rights including the right to form clubs and participate in events and activities promoting LGBTQ+ interests and lifestyles; and
• pregnancy protections including required lactation space and reasonable break time for students and employees who have pregnancy-related medical conditions or are breastfeeding.

Limiting Protections for the Accused

While the new rules' protections are generous, they unfortunately significantly limit the adjudication process and rights for members of the school community accused of violations. The new rules no longer require schools to provide a formal hearing with live testimony under oath subject to attorney cross-examination. Other changes include:

• permitting use of one individual to be both the investigator and decision-maker, restoring the controversial “single-investigator model”;
• allowing schools to design Title IX policies according to their own administrative structure and student body characteristics;
• allowing oral complaints, making live hearings optional, and allowing postsecondary schools to set their own procedural timelines; and
• requiring use of the standard of proof to be a “preponderance of the evidence” instead of “clear and convincing.”

Defending the Accused Educator

Just because the new rules limit procedural rights of the accused does not mean that you cannot defend a Title IX charge. The Lento Law Firm's Professional License Defense Team is dedicated to protecting your rights and ensuring that you get the best possible resolution to your case. Our skilled and experienced attorneys may still be able to invoke school procedures to show that you did not commit the alleged offense, that you were exercising statutory and constitutional free-speech and religious rights, or to prove other defenses.

We are also available to appear before your state licensing board to defend your educator's license or certification. The new Title IX rules do not affect the due process that state licensing boards generally owe license holders threatened with license suspension or revocation. To learn more about how we can help, call 888-535-3686 or contact us online.