Survivors can’t wait. We need immediate action on Title IX now. Join us to demand:
- The Department of Education issue a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) by April 30th, 2021. Survivors don’t have the luxury of waiting for the government to take their safety and rights seriously. Survivors are being denied the most basic protections because they weren’t assaulted or harassed at the right place, by the right person, or at the right time. Every single day that goes by only increases the numbers of survivors who will be forced to suffer because of DeVos’s Title IX rule and their school’s failure to protect their education. Your Department of Education must act swiftly to ensure that no survivor is pushed out of school because of sexual violence and harassment.
- Issue interim guidance. This guidance should prioritize ensuring that survivors have access to accommodations and supportive measures — like mental health resources, academic accommodations, and safety support — especially in light of COVID-19.
- Conduct a listening tour. It is imperative that any future Title IX regulation and guidance is informed by the lived experiences of student survivors. To do this, prior to issuing an NPRM, ED must meet with student survivors and their advocates to ensure the rule will meet the needs of student survivors who utilize Title IX to protect their education.
- Ensure survivors can file complaints when their rights are violated. In 2020, DeVos’s Department of Education altered the case processing manual to limit the amount of students who could seek help from the Office for Civil Rights. Currently, students have only 180 days from the alleged discrimination. That means that for many survivors, they would have to file a complaint with the Department of Education before their case even concludes. This must be rewritten so that complainants can file within 180 days from the most recent instance of discrimination instead of the first instance.