Tag: Biden Education Department

Title IX Protections Extend to Transgender Students, Education Dept. Says

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The department said that discrimination against transgender students was prohibited under the law, a reversal of its Trump-era position.

WASHINGTON — The Education Department said on Wednesday that transgender students were protected under Title IX, a law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded schools, reversing a Trump-era policy that effectively had said the opposite.

“We just want to double down on our expectations,” Miguel A. Cardona, the education secretary, said in an interview. “Students cannot be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation or their gender identity.”

The decision was rooted in a Supreme Court ruling last year that determined that protections in the Civil Rights Act against discrimination in the workplace extended to gay and transgender people, and similar interpretations of the ruling have appeared in agencies throughout President Biden’s government. His administration has conducted a sweeping effort to rescind, revise or revoke a number of Trump-era policies that rolled back transgender rights. Continue reading.

Biden directs fresh review of Title IX rule on campus sexual assault

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President Biden on Monday directed the Education Department to review a controversial regulation governing how colleges and universities handle allegations of sexual assault, with an eye toward unraveling a new system put into place by former education secretary Betsy DeVos.

The DeVos regulation released in May spells out due process rights for those accused of harassment or assault, and the former secretary saw it as one of her most significant achievements. But it came under sharp attack from Democrats, women’s groups and others, and as a candidate, Biden signaled he would replace it.

It’s not clear, though, how he will go about it. Unraveling a regulation that is already in place may require a second complex rulemaking process.

Biden signed an executive order directing the Education Department to evaluate whether the DeVos regulation is “consistent with the policies” of the Biden administration. That’s a first step toward a fresh policy. Continue reading.