BASA Member Update 2.28.2020

Bricker Brief

FEBRUARY 27, 2020

Civil Rights Initiative to Combat Sexual Assault in K-12 Public Schools – U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (Feb. 26, 2020)

The announcement identifies OCR’s recent resolution agreement with Chicago Public Schools concerning sexual harassment and sexual assault complaints as illustrating “the systemic and significant deficiencies that require OCR’s intentional and focused examination.” The U.S. Department of Education will also be publishing a “Pass the Trash” study to examine measures states and school districts have taken to prevent educators who have engaged in sexual misconduct with students frombeing employed by other districts. Section 8546 of the Every Student Succeeds Act prohibits state education agencies, schools, and school employees from assisting a school employee in obtaining a new job if the employee engaged in sexual misconduct involving a minor or student. Districts should review their Title IX policies to ensure that district personnel, students, and parents know how to report concerns and that district administrators responsible for disciplinary investigations are trained to recognize when Title IX investigations are required. Please note: Bricker Briefs are provided to BASA members as an informational service courtesy of the law firm of Bricker & Eckler LLP, a BASA Premier Partner. They are not intended to serve as a legal opinion with respect to any specific person or factual situation.

Citing a “troubling rise” in the number of sexual assaults in K-12 schools, the U.S. Department of Education announced a new Title IX enforcement initiative to be led by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to “strengthen the ability of schools to respond to all incidents of sexual harassment and assault.” Title IX requires school districts to respond promptly and equitably to both student-on- student and staff-on-student allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault. Districts must take steps to eliminate the harassment, prevent its recurrence and remedy its effects. OCR’s sexual assault initiative will include: • Compliance Reviews to examine how sexual assault cases are handled under Title IX (including incidents involving teachers and staff). • Public Awareness and Support to raise awareness of sexual assault in K-12 schools. • DataQualityReviews of sexual assault/offenses data submitted by school districts through the Civil Rights Data Collection to ensure incidents of sexual assault and sexual offenses are accurately recorded and reported. • Proposed CRDC Data Collection : OCR has proposed to collect more detailed sexual assault data, including data on incidents perpetuated by school staff or personnel.

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