The Biden administration on Friday will announce changes to Title IX, expanding protections for LGBTQ+ and pregnant students while overhauling controversial Trump-era guidance around how schools should handle sexual assault cases.
“Our nation’s educational institutions should be places where we not only accept differences, but celebrate them – places that root out hate and promote inclusion, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because our systems and institutions are richer for it,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said on a call Thursday previewing the changes to Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination at federally funded schools.
The final rule – which is slated to take effect on August 1 – requires schools to protect students from all sex discrimination, including sexual violence and sex-based harassment, expanding that definition to include discrimination based on pregnancy or pregnancy-related conditions like childbirth, termination of pregnancy, or recovery from pregnancy.
The rule also prohibits discrimination “based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics in federally funded education programs,” according to a fact sheet shared with CNN Thursday, formalizing a previously proposed rule from the administration that would strengthen Title IX protections for transgender students.
It also aims to prevent retaliation against students or employees who’ve reported sex discrimination.
The new Title IX regulations will also reverse guidance under the Trump administration that narrowly defined sexual harassment and investigation requirements critics said could discourage victims from reporting sexual assault and harassment on college campuses.
Per the administration fact sheet, Friday’s rule prohibits “all forms of sex-based harassment, including sexual violence and unwelcome sex-based conduct that creates a hostile environment by limiting or denying a person’s ability to participate in or benefit from a school’s education program or activity.”
The Trump-era changes received significant backlash from victim advocacy groups, which argued the regulations would discourage survivors from reporting sexual assault and harassment. Under the Trump rules, colleges and universities are required to hold live hearings with cross-examinations of both parties. Then-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos argued that guidance issued under the Obama administration had denied due process to those accused of harassment or assault and the new rules would give more rights to those accused.
The new rule will allow investigators or decisionmakers to assess parties’ credibility in either a live hearing, as mandated under the Trump administration, or during an individual meeting with a party or witness and with questions proposed by each party in lieu of cross examination.
But at least one change to Title IX instituted under Trump remains: a provision that prohibited schools from engaging in disciplinary measures like suspending students from sports teams while a Title IX investigation is still pending.
“Removing a respondent from participation in any program or activity before the respondent has been deemed responsible under Title IX is burdensome for the respondent, is inconsistent with not holding the respondent responsible during the pendency of the proceedings, and so we retain that provision as part of the of the required equity for all parties under Title IX,” a senior administration official said Thursday.