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Title IX Turnabout: What Educators Must Know Under Trump 2.0
TITLE IX RULE:
During his first term, President Trump appointed Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, who enacted sweeping Title IX regulations in May 2020. These updated regulations were the U.S. Department of Education’s first formal revision of the Title IX regulations since the 1970s. The regulations significantly pulled back on informal guidance issued under prior administrations through Dear Colleague Letters (DCLs). For example, the 2020 regulations narrowed the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) definition of “sexual harassment” to incidents that are “severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive,” which was the standard already being applied by the courts, and required formal investigation procedures involving multiple school administrators, the sharing of education records historically considered confidential among parties, a presumption of innocence (non-responsibility) prior to investigation, conflict-free adjudicators, and extensive documentation and appeal procedures. These changes aimed to enhance due-process protections and provide a fairer process to those accused of sexual harassment (Respondents).
BIDEN’S 2024 OVERHAUL (NOW NULLIFIED):
The Biden administration in April 2024, revised those regulations to recognize gender identity and sexual orientation under “sex discrimination,” expanded the definition of harassment, and provided some flexibility for investigations. However, the 2024 rules were challenged and struck down by a federal judge in Tennessee v. Cardona on January 9, 2025.
Return to 2020 rule under Trump 2.0: Acting swiftly after the court decision and his inauguration, Trump signed an executive order (EO) on January 20, 2025, mandating federal agencies to recognize only “two sexes based on biology.” The DOE issued a Dear Colleague Letter on January 31 instructing all federally funded educational institutions to revert immediately to the 2020 Title IX framework. TRUMP’S ORIGINAL 2020
