If you have been wrongly accused of a Title IX violation in higher education, see our page on Help for Wrongly Accused Students.

We are glad to officially announce what we have been doing quietly for some time: providing advisory services for wrongly accused students for the full duration of the school’s Title IX proceedings against them. This means that, from the time they receive notice that an investigation has been initiated to (if necessary) the end of their appeal, we are assisting student clients and helping them with such things as:

• Preparing them for interviews with investigators and for hearings before decision-makers
• Drafting communication with the school
• Reviewing, obtaining, and preserving evidence
• Making objections
• Advising students on how to best navigate no-contact orders
• Requesting accommodations
• Assistance and questioning during hearings
• Advising on general strategy

The Biden administration’s Title IX regulations overhauling misconduct proceedings are currently blocked in fifteen states. We look forward to assisting accused students, whatever state they are in and whatever regulations are in effect.

Distinctions

We have a few distinctions that assist us in meeting our clients’ needs.

Affordability

Regulations governing Title IX misconduct proceedings provide that accused students that they may be assisted by an “advisor of their choice, who may be, but is not required to be, an attorney.”[1] Most advisors who assist accused students in a professional capacity are attorneys.

It remains our recommendation that those who can afford it should go with an experienced attorney who specializes in Title IX (see our Attorneys Directory). Most students have little to no money tree to shake, however. For their benefit, we offer advisory services at what will almost certainly be a fraction of the cost.

Experienced Specialists

For accused students, there is often a big difference in outcomes between those who engage a Title IX specialist and those who do not. For us, Title IX is not one area of work among many; it is our core focus. We eat, sleep, and breathe Title IX. We have been doing this since 2010 – since before the Department of Education’s 2011 “Dear Colleague Letter” that addressed misconduct proceedings and radically ramped up the war over student rights.

More often than not, our work advising clients has contributed to a positive outcome. For example, decision-makers either found the student was not responsible for the alleged misconduct, or the school agreed that the discipline was excessive and reduced its severity – such as from suspension to probation, allowing the student to maintain enrollment, scholarships, and work opportunities.

We have also worked for years to inform the public on the increasingly complex world of Title IX. We are the creators of the world’s only database dedicated to Title IX accused student matters: the Accused Students Database. It is regularly used by students, education professionals, legal professionals, and advocates. We have tracked and analyzed over 850 Title IX lawsuits filed by accused students and the methods (and alleged deficiencies) of hundreds of university Title IX investigations.

Our work has not gone without recognition; it is continuously cited by legal, education, and media professionals. We also have written regular newsletters and opinion pieces on complaints and judicial decisions.

Put simply, when students and their parents reach out to us, they know that they are contacting specialists experienced in the issues that directly concern them.

A Profession with a Passion

Because of the highly sensitive and impactful nature of these cases, students need to know that the person assisting them is fully “in their corner,” will pull out all the stops to assist them, and will keep their information confidential. They need to know that the advisor cares and puts them first.

Our mission has long been to advance the rights of the wrongly accused in the education system. We have done this by assisting individual students, raising awareness of the issues, and advocating for fairness at local, state, and federal levels. None of our advocacy came with the promise of money. We did it because we thought it was the right thing to do. Because of our advocacy, we are instinctively aware of the interests at work in the education system and can anticipate certain things before they happen for the benefit of our clients.

While our advocacy informs our advisory work, everything is tempered by putting the client first. Activists tend to regard everything as a fight, but an advisor serving the best interests of the client cannot. Some problems that arise in the course of school investigations are due to bias, but others are instead due to errors or misunderstandings on the part of the school that can be cured through negotiation.

Tagline Change

We have changed the tagline of our organization to reflect the three pillars of what we now do:

Policy Updates and Conclusion

We have updated our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. View them here.

Thank you for joining us in this special announcement. We plan on releasing more details in the coming weeks. In the meantime, view our page on Help for Wrongly Accused Students here.

Footnotes

[1] 34 CFR 106.45(b)(5)(iv)