Recently, the U.S. Department of Education’s (USDE) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced it was rescinding parts of a handful of Title IX resolution agreements issued under the Biden and Obama administrations. The move creates uncertainty for school districts that look to resolution agreements and OCR case resolutions as examples of best practices.
While rescinding guidance and official interpretations have become common practice for the OCR under previous administrations, the USDE has with much lesser frequency publicly rescinded resolution agreements — if at all.
In rescinding the agreements with five school districts and one college, the USDE said the “previous Administrations distorted the law” when they entered into the resolution agreements and “illegally saddled school districts with Title IX violations.”
However, many of the agreements that the administration recently rescinded were already out of the monitoring phase, meaning school districts had already implemented the agreed changes, and OCR was no longer ensuring compliance.
In addition, with the administration rescinding Title IX resolution agreements, other agreements under laws such as Title VI have been brought into question, further stoking uncertainty.
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