On January 31, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) confirmed that, effective immediately and applicable to all open Title IX investigations, it will enforce the first Trump administration’s 2020 Title IX regulations (the 2020 Rule), rather than the Biden-era regulations (the 2024 Rule). The reinstated 2020 Rule, inter alia, limits Title IX sexual harassment claims to those based on sex assigned at birth. This follows President Trump’s January 20, 2025, executive order for all federal executive agencies to recognize only “two sexes, male and female.”
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- On January 9, 2025, a federal district court vacated the 2024 Rule, but provided little guidance on how long institutions would have to comply with the new legal landscape, and most importantly, whether the DOE planned to revert back to prior regulations. The DOE has now confirmed that the court’s ruling returned Title IX enforcement to the 2020 Rule.
- The DOE no longer interprets Title IX’s prohibition of discrimination “on the basis of sex” as including discrimination on the basis of sex stereotypes, sexual orientation, gender identity (including transgender status), or sex characteristics.
- President Trump’s January 20, 2025, Executive Order, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” (Executive Order), ordered federal agencies to promptly rescind all guidance inconsistent with the Executive Order’s decree that the federal government should only recognize sex assigned at birth and “two sexes, male and female” (excluding nonbinary identities).
- In compliance with the Executive Order and consistent with the federal court’s vacatur of the 2024 Rule, the DOE issued a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL), confirming that educational institutions should ensure all policies and investigations are consistent with the 2020 Rule. The DCL provides that its guidance is effective immediately and applies to all open Title IX investigations.
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The DCL confirms that all schools that receive federal financial assistance must implement or maintain policies that comply with the 2020 Rule. Crucially, this change is effective immediately and applies to all open investigations, regardless of which regulation was in effect at the time of the complained-of conduct.
Read the full legal alert here.