We recently discussed a de-identified case on our blog: A student-athlete disclosed repeated sexualized comments and touching by her coach, first to her head coach, then to the Title IX Coordinator. The head coach didn’t escalate the disclosure. Instead, she asked the students whether they wanted it reported or handled internally, and then nothing happened. […]
A new academic year always brings new compliance challenges, but this one feels different. Federal agencies continue to reshape their priorities, the courts are as active as ever, and schools, districts, and institutions are navigating a legal and regulatory environment that keeps shifting. We spent a good chunk of our Back-to-School Compliance Webinar walking through […]
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Education’s 2026 Unified Agenda was formally published in the Federal Register, prompting discussion throughout the education compliance community about what may be coming next for Title IX, Title VI, Clery, and other civil rights regulations. Before diving into the individual items, it’s worth answering a simple question: What […]
Last month, the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced investigations into five medical schools for alleged racial discrimination in admissions. Admissions-focused investigations are nothing new for OCR. These five are different because of how they were opened: jointly, with two other federal agencies involved from the start. OCR conducted this […]
On August 3, U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon issued a National Call to Action letter to every college and university president and governing board in the country, asking them to publish, by the end of 2026, a public statement describing their commitment to reforms the ED believes would help to restore public trust in […]
A federal law designed to protect students and employees from nonconsensual intimate images just reached full effect. It is worth understanding what it does, and being clear-eyed about what it does not do for the people who report these incidents to your school, district, or institution. What Just Changed? The TAKE IT DOWN Act, signed […]
On June 30, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced that it is partnering with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to protect parental rights in Kansas City, Kansas by jointly enforcing the ED’s April 2026 finding that Kansas City, Kansas Public School District (District) violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) by […]
Artificial intelligence has introduced a new category of sexual misconduct that schools and institutions are being asked to navigate with little guidance, limited precedent, and significant legal and reputational risk. AI-generated sexual imagery involving students is no longer a hypothetical threat. It is showing up in K-12 districts and on college campuses right now, and […]
Last week, the U.S. Department of Education announced a change to how it enforces one of the country’s oldest civil rights laws. The Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) published a final rule rescinding several disparate-impact provisions from its Title VI regulations, the part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibits discrimination based […]
An OCR Reminder: Schools Still Cannot Rely on Law Enforcement Alone Over the past several months, much of the conversation surrounding the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has focused on athletics, parental rights, antisemitism, gender identity, and, more recently, Immediate Action Agreements (IAAs). Those topics have understandably dominated the civil rights […]
