Betsy DeVos is the 11th Secretary of Education of the United States. She was confirmed by the US Senate n February 7, 2017, after being nominated by Donald J. Trump.
You can read about the full scope of what the Secretary of Education does here, but for now- let’s talk about Title IX.
Title IX is a federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in US educational institutes. It’s been around since 1972, but its rules and regulations have evolved so much that it can be hard to keep up with what’s what. So here are 7 things to know about the new Title IX regulations:
so, what does this all mean?
The new policy also reduces legal liabilities for schools and colleges, and narrows the scope of cases schools will be required to investigate.
The change reshapes the way the nation’s schools respond to complaints of sexual misconduct. It is meant to replace policies from the Obama administration that DeVos previously revoked, saying they pressured schools to deny the rights of accused students.
Under the new rules, the definition of sexual harassment is narrowed to include only misconduct that is “so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive” that it effectively denies the victim access to the school’s education programs. The rules add dating violence, domestic violence and stalking to the definition of sexual harassment.
The Obama administration, by contrast, used a wider definition that included a range of conduct that “interferes with or limits” a student’s access to the school. It said that could include “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal, nonverbal, or physical conduct of a sexual nature.”
Betsy DeVos’ policy adds new measures intended to make sure students accused of sexual misconduct are judged fairly in campus disciplinary hearings. Students on both sides must be given equal access to evidence gathered in the school’s investigation and be allowed to bring an adviser, which can be a lawyer, to the proceedings.
DeVos’ rules effectively tell the nation’s schools how to apply the 1972 federal law known as Title IX, which bars discrimination based on sex in education. It applies to colleges and universities, along with primary and secondary schools.
