Fact Sheet on New Regulations 

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) was signed into law more than 50 years ago. In the decades since, Title IX’s protections have paved the way for tremendous strides in access to education and more for millions of students across the country and have opened doors for generations of women and girls. In spite of this historic progress, rates of sexual harassment and assault in our nation’s schools and colleges remain unacceptably high. Many women see their education derailed because of pregnancy discrimination. And many LGBTQI+ students face bullying and harassment just because of who they are. The Biden-Harris Administration believes that the promise of Title IX, an education free from sex discrimination, remains as vital now as it was when it was first signed into law.

On April 19, 2024, the U.S. Department of Education released its final rule to fully effectuate Title IX’s promise that no person experiences sex discrimination in federally funded education. Before issuing the proposed regulations, the Department received feedback on its Title IX regulations, as amended in 2020, from a wide variety of stakeholders. The regulations released today draw on the Department’s engagement with tens of thousands of students, parents, educators, State government representatives, advocates, lawyers, researchers, and representatives from elementary schools, secondary schools, and postsecondary institutions. After releasing the proposed regulations in July 2022, the Department received and reviewed more than 240,000 comments from the public to inform this rulemaking.

The final regulations will help to ensure that all persons, including students and employees, receive appropriate support if they experience sex discrimination in schools and that schools’ procedures for investigating and resolving complaints of sex discrimination are accurate and fair to all involved. The final regulations strengthen several major provisions from the current regulations and provide schools with information to meet their Title IX obligations while providing appropriate discretion and flexibility to account for variations in school size, student populations, and administrative structures. The final regulations also provide greater clarity regarding: the definition of “sex-based harassment”; the scope of sex discrimination, including schools’ obligations not to discriminate based on sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity; and schools’ obligations to provide an educational environment free from discrimination on the basis of sex.

The final regulations strengthen vital protections for students in our nation’s schools and provide clear rules to help schools meet their Title IX obligation to eliminate sex discrimination in their education programs and activities. The final regulations also reaffirm the Department’s core commitment to fundamental fairness for all parties; the rights of parents and guardians to support minor children; respect for freedom of speech and academic freedom; and respect for the autonomy that complainants need and deserve when they come forward with a claim of sex discrimination.

The final regulations:

Provide full protection from sex-based harassment.

The final regulations strengthen vital protections from 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.

Require schools to take prompt and effective action to end any sex discrimination in their education programs or activities—and to prevent its recurrence and remedy its effects.

The final regulations promote accountability and fulfill Title IX’s nondiscrimination mandate by requiring schools to act promptly and effectively in response to information about conduct that reasonably may constitute sex discrimination, including sexual violence and other forms of sexbased harassment. These regulations also require that schools train employees about the school’s obligation to address sex discrimination, as well as employees’ obligations to notify or provide contact information for the Title IX Coordinator.

Require schools to provide supportive measures to complainants and respondents affected by conduct that may constitute sex discrimination, including sexual violence and other forms of sex-based harassment.

Under the final regulations, schools are required to offer supportive measures, as appropriate, to restore or preserve a party’s access to the school’s education program or activity or provide support during a school’s grievance procedures or the informal resolution process. Supportive measures cannot be unreasonably burdensome to a party and cannot be imposed for punitive or disciplinary reasons.

Require schools to respond promptly and effectively to all complaints of sex discrimination with a fair, transparent, and reliable process that includes trained, unbiased decisionmakers to evaluate all relevant and not otherwise impermissible evidence.

The final regulations strengthen requirements for schools to conduct reliable and impartial investigations of all sex discrimination complaints. The final regulations maintain several major provisions from the current regulations to ensure consistency for schools while updating required procedures to more effectively protect against sex discrimination in the nation’s elementary schools, secondary schools, and postsecondary institutions.

The Department’s final regulations include the following: • All schools must treat complainants and respondents equitably.

• Title IX Coordinators, investigators, decisionmakers, and facilitators of an informal resolution process must not have a conflict of interest or bias for or against complainants or respondents generally or an individual complainant or respondent.

• A school’s grievance procedures must include a presumption that the respondent is not responsible for the alleged sex discrimination until a determination is made at the conclusion of the school’s grievance procedures.

• A school’s grievance procedures must require adequate notice to the parties of the allegations, dismissal, delays, meetings, proceedings, and determinations.

• A school’s grievance procedures must give the parties an equal opportunity to present and access relevant and not otherwise impermissible evidence, as well as provide a reasonable opportunity for each party to respond to that evidence. 2

• The school’s decisionmakers must objectively evaluate each party’s relevant and not otherwise impermissible evidence.

• A school must have a process enabling the decisionmaker to assess a party’s or witness’s credibility when credibility is in dispute and relevant. For sex-based harassment complaints involving a student party at a postsecondary institution, this process must include either: questioning by the investigator or decisionmaker during individual meetings with a party or witness (including questions proposed by each party), or questioning by the decisionmaker during a live hearing (including questions proposed by each party and asked by the decisionmaker or the party’s advisor).

• In evaluating the parties’ evidence, a school must use the preponderance of the evidence standard of proof unless the school uses the clear and convincing evidence standard in all other comparable proceedings, including proceedings relating to other discrimination complaints, in which case the school may use that standard in determining whether sex discrimination occurred.

• A school must not impose disciplinary sanctions under Title IX on any person unless it determines at the conclusion of grievance procedures that sex discrimination for which the person was responsible has occurred.

Provide schools with flexibility to adapt the regulations’ grievance procedure requirements to their educational communities so that all schools can implement Title IX’s promise of nondiscrimination fully and fairly in their educational environments.

The Department’s final regulations will enable all schools to meet their Title IX obligations while providing appropriate discretion and flexibility to account for variations in school size, student populations, and administrative structures. For instance, schools have the option to use a single-investigator model, and schools may choose to use this model in some, but not all, cases as long as it is clear in their grievance procedures when this model will be utilized. Schools also have the option to offer an informal resolution process for sex discrimination complaints unless the complaint includes allegations that an employee engaged in sex-based harassment of an elementary school or secondary school student, or unless such a process would conflict with Federal, State, or local law. Further, the Department’s final regulations reflect a framework that accounts for differences in the age, maturity, needs, and level of independence of students in various educational settings. The final regulations include some requirements that apply in all educational settings as well as specialized requirements that are tailored to the unique situation of sex-based harassment complaints involving postsecondary students. This framework is designed to ensure that all elementary and secondary schools and postsecondary institutions provide for the prompt and equitable resolution of sex discrimination complaints in their respective settings.

Protect students, employees, and applicants from discrimination based on pregnancy or related conditions.

The final regulations update longstanding existing protections for students, employees, and applicants against discrimination based on pregnancy, childbirth, termination of pregnancy, lactation, related medical conditions, or recovery from these conditions. Specifically, the final regulations strengthen requirements that schools provide reasonable modifications for students 3 based on pregnancy or related conditions, allow for reasonable break time for lactation for employees, and access to a clean, private lactation space for students and employees. The final regulations also require that when a student, a parent of a minor student, or other authorized legal representative informs a school employee of a student’s pregnancy or related conditions, the employee then must provide the individual with information about the school’s obligations to prevent discrimination and ensure equal access. The final regulations also prohibit schools from disclosing personally identifiable information they obtain through complying with Title IX, including information about reasonable modifications for pregnancy or related conditions, with limited exceptions.

Prohibit discrimination against LGBTQI+ students, employees, and others.

The rule prohibits discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics in federally funded education programs, applying the reasoning of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County.

Protect people from harm when they are separated or treated differently based on sex in school.

The final regulations clarify that a school must not separate or treat people differently based on sex in a manner that subjects them to more than de minimis harm, except in limited circumstances permitted by Title IX. The final regulations further recognize that preventing someone from participating in school (including in sex-separate activities) consistent with their gender identity causes that person more than de minimis harm. This general nondiscrimination principle applies except in the limited circumstances specified by statute, such as in the context of sex-separate living facilities and sex-separate athletic teams. The final regulations do not include new rules governing eligibility criteria for athletic teams.

Protects students, employees, and others from retaliation.

The final regulations reinforce that schools must not intimidate, threaten, coerce, or discriminate against someone in order to interfere with their Title IX rights or because they reported sex discrimination, including sexual violence or other forms of sex-based harassment, or participated in, or refused to participate in, the school’s Title IX process. The final regulations also make clear that schools must protect students from peer retaliation by other students.

Support the right of parents and guardians to act on behalf of their elementary and secondary school children.

The final regulations support the rights of parents and guardians to act on behalf of a minor student, including when seeking assistance under Title IX and participating in a school’s Title IX grievance procedures.

Ensure that schools communicate their nondiscrimination policies and procedures.

The final regulations require schools to clearly and effectively inform key people, including students, employees, and applicants, of their nondiscrimination policies and procedures.

Prohibit schools from sharing personal information.

4 The final regulations prohibit schools from disclosing personally identifiable information they obtain through complying with Title IX, with limited exceptions, such as when they have prior written consent or when the information is disclosed to the parent of a minor. The unofficial version of the final regulations is available . In addition, the Department has released a summary of the major provisions of the final regulations and a resource for drafting Title IX nondiscrimination policies, notices of nondiscrimination, and grievance procedures. The final regulations are effective on August 1, 2024, and apply to complaints of sex discrimination regarding alleged conduct that occurs on or after that date. The Department is committed to supporting schools in implementing the final regulations and will provide technical assistance and additional resources to schools to support implementation and compliance, as appropriate.