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Dear Education Leader:
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) today released a series of technical assistance materials on the Department’s Title IX Regulations to help schools meet their non-discrimination requirements under federal law and help parents, students, and stakeholders understand their rights and protections. The materials were released through OCR’s Outreach, Prevention, Education, and Non-Discrimination (OPEN) Center as part of a dedicated commitment to providing high-quality technical assistance:
OCR Title IX Video: Regional Centers and School Consortia: https://youtu.be/bOprfu8Ixrg
OCR’s first webinar will help educators, administrators, and stakeholders better understand how schools can work together to meet certain responsibilities under OCR’s Title IX’s regulations. The video provides information on how schools can coordinate communication on their Title IX Coordinators and non-discrimination policies, and how schools can utilize regional centers or consortia to investigate and adjudicate a sexual harassment complaint.
OCR Title IX Video: Bias and Conflicts of Interest: https://youtu.be/vHppcOdrzCg
OCR’s second new video instructs recipients on how to adopt and publish policies to ensure that sexual harassment allegations are fairly adjudicated, how they must train their Title IX personnel to avoid bias and conflicts of interest, and how they can effectively administer a grievance process in a way that avoids bias and conflicts of interest. The webinar also addresses whether schools can meet the requirements of Title IX while using “trauma-informed” techniques.
Parts I and II of: Questions and Answers Regarding the Department’s Title IX Regulations, January 15, 2021: https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/qa-titleix-part1-20210115.pdf and https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/qa-titleix-part2-20210115.pdf
Today, OCR also issued technical assistance supporting institutions in meeting their obligations under Title IX’s regulations. The documents are derived from questions posed to the OPEN Center by email, and supplementing Questions and Answers Regarding the Department’s Final Title IX Rule previously issued by the OPEN Center on September 4, 2020. These two technical assistance documents provide information on several topics, including how to apply previous OCR guidance on Title IX, how recipients are to proceed with allegations made between their employees, and how recipients can best address the privacy requests of complainants while still fulfilling Title IX’s obligations.
OCR Technical Assistance Repository: www.ed.gov/ocr/open
The OPEN Center is also pleased to announce its searchable repository of all responses issued to questions received by the OPEN Center related to the Department’s Title IX rule. A master document, indexed by category, containing all these responses is also available for download at this link.
If you have questions about the webinar, ideas for future video webinars, or require specific technical assistance with the laws enforced by OCR, please contact the OPEN center at: OPEN@ed.gov. Questions regarding Title IX can also be sent to T9questions@ed.gov. For additional information on OCR’s policy guidance, visit OCR’s Policy Portal here.
For a catalogue of additional OPEN Center webinars other technical assistance materials, please visit the OPEN Center.
Sincerely,
Kimberly M. Richey
Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights
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