On April 19, 2024, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (“DOE”) issued its long-awaited and lengthy Final Title IX regulations (after having received more than 240,000 comments from the public during the interim rulemaking process).

The new regulations are slated to take effect on August 1, 2024, and feature largely the same core principles found in the Department’s 2022 draft rules. Most notably, the regulations (among other things):

• Broaden the scope of sex discrimination and sexual harassment to include sexual orientation, gender identity, and pregnancy status;
• Extend Title IX obligation to off campus and remote/on-line settings;
• Define and discuss peer-retaliation;
• Make all non-confidential resource staff mandatory reporters;
• Permits a single investigator/decisionmaker model, subject to expanded neutrality requirements;
• Introduces options for informal resolution between a respondent and claimant (including prior to issuance of a formal complaint);
• Revises the information required to be provided to a respondent and the notice timeline for an investigation; and
• Provides modifications for resolving such complaints in due process hearings (through, for example, the employment of a panel or board of individuals to function as decision-maker) or through a single-investigator model.

For our more fulsome summary of the changes in the 2024 Final Rule, click here.

The DOE has posted a fact sheet, summary of major changes, and resources for drafting Title IX policies and procedures.