In May 2020, the U.S. Department of Education (“DOE”) issued new regulations and for the first time addressed sexual harassment as a form of sex discrimination in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (20 U.S.C. § 1681) (“Title IX”). Due to heightened attention to sexual harassment in elementary and secondary schools and Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) investigations involving districts’ handling of sexual harassment allegations, districts should take steps to protect their students and themselves by appropriately implementing new procedures prescribed by the regulations. The new regulations are effective August 14, 2020.
Sexual harassment and sexual assault statistics generally are difficult to track at the elementary and secondary level. In April 2018, OCR issued data highlights of its 2015–16 Civil Rights Data Collection (“CRDC”), OCR’s most recent survey for districts and schools. The CRDC, compiling data from 17,000 districts comprising approximately 96,000 schools, indicated that:
- 5,535 incidents of sexual harassment or sex-based harassment or bullying were reported.
- 400 incidents of rape or attempted rape were reported.
- 9,300 incidents of sexual assault other than rape were reported.