This guide is for those who are entirely new to Title IX. If you or a family member have been accused of violating a school’s misconduct policies, please be sure to check out our resources.

What Does Title IX Protect Against?

Title IX is a federal law passed in 1972 to combat sex discrimination in education. Back then, enforcement of Title IX tended to focus more narrowly on a few issues like women’s sports. Over time, it has broadened to include protections from more categories of sex discrimination. These broadened protections have not come from Congressional lawmaking but instead from the judicial and the executive branches—especially regulation and guidance from the Department of Education (abbreviated “ED”).[1]

Title IX protects students from sex discrimination in such issues as:

Athletics

Schools must provide male and female students with equal athletic opportunities, such as equal facilities and equipment. Athletics is the most frequently resolved area of investigation by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

Misconduct

Schools must ensure students are free from gender-based misconduct, which can include sexual harassment, sexual assault (which school policies often called “non-consensual sexual contact”), relationship violence or threats of relationship violence, stalking, and sexual exploitation (such as distributing sexual images of someone without their consent).

Not only are schools obligated to investigate misconduct and work to prevent it, but they must also provide “remedies” that are designed to restore or preserve a victim’s equal access to education when they determine that misconduct has occurred.[2]

If you or someone you love has been accused of misconduct, please see our resources for wrongly accused students:

• Guide: What to Do if You Have Been Wrongly Accused
• Affordable advisory services
• Accused Students Database
• Helpful Organizations and Individuals

Equal Scholarship Opportunities

Schools cannot use public funds to establish scholarships that favor a particular sex.

Retaliation

Schools cannot retaliate against students and personnel who make good-faith complaints.

Other Protections

Title IX also protects from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, pregnancy status, gender identity harassment, and other areas.

When Does Title IX Have Authority/Jurisdiction?

Because Title IX is a federal law, it applies all U.S. states and territories. The text of Title IX simply says:

No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.

Note several things:

• The law focuses on protecting the individual person from discrimination. This means programs that discriminate against individuals for “good reasons,” including “equity” programs and so forth, may run afoul of this law.
• The law hinges on the school having received federal financial assistance. This includes any money schools receive from the federal government, including money transferred through the student loan system and COVID pandemic relief through the CARES Act. Title IX has no jurisdiction over a school if it has not received federal money. A school’s tax-exempt status does not qualify as federal financial assistance.[3]
• The requirement that the individual protected from discrimination is participating (or attempting to participate) in an educational program or activity. The scope of what constitutes an educational program or activity is an ongoing matter of debate.

Be aware that many states legislatures and courts have their own laws and precedents for protecting students from sex discrimination. These precedents and laws may impact how schools implements their own Title IX policies. Sometimes, these judicial opinions, laws, and regulations conflict with each other.

How is Title IX Enforced?

While lofty federal courts and departments have tasked schools with protecting students from discrimination, on the “ground level” it can be difficult for individual students who allege that they have been victims of sex discrimination to get an outcome they believe is fair and appropriate. This is also true for students on both ends of a misconduct investigation, whether they are “complainants” (accusers) or “respondents” (the accused).

Through the assistance of an advisor or attorney, students may be able to influence the behavior of school personnel to get a more favorable outcome than is otherwise possible. The chances of this succeeding are much higher when all the professionals involved are well-versed in the relevant laws and everyone takes a “help me help you” approach.

That said, no attorney, advisor, student, or parent can “force” school administrators to do anything. In practice, administrators—especially in higher education—tend to enjoy broad discretion. There are those who can force schools to act in a certain way, however. They are:

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR)

This office investigates sex discrimination complaints through its twelve regional branches. Complaints must be filed within 180 days after the alleged discrimination occurs. In rare cases, the Department of Justice may also get involved. You can learn more about OCR investigations at the following links:

• The OCR Resolutions Database
• Guide to Filing an OCR Complaint

Federal Judges

Students frequently sue educational institutions for sex discrimination. Since 2011, over 850 lawsuits have been filed by accused students claiming their rights were violated in Title IX misconduct investigations. At least as many have also been filed by students alleging that they were victims of misconduct and the school failed to respond appropriately.

If students have a compelling case “on the merits” and can demonstrate that they will be “irreparably harmed” if a judge does not act, that judge may issue a court order—usually an injunction, writ, or something similar—to force the school to do something. An attorney who specializes in Title IX matters can help with this. Here are two resources on Title IX attorneys and lawsuits:

• Our Accused Students Database (formerly the Title IX Lawsuits Database), which tracks lawsuits by students accused of Title IX violations
• Our Attorneys Directory, which helps users find and compare attorney with insights into their successes in court

Accused of or Found Responsible for a Title IX Violation?

We offer a range of free and low-cost resources and services for accused students. Check them out here.

Footnotes

[1] Many people new to education policy abbreviate the Department of Education as “DOE,” but the correct abbreviation is ED; “DOE” is the abbreviation for the Department of Energy which was created before the Department of Education.

[2] According to federal regulations at 34 CFR 106.45(b)(1)(i), “A recipient’s [school’s] grievance process must…treat complainants and respondents equitably by providing remedies to a complainant where a determination of responsibility for sexual harassment has been made against the respondent.”

[3] Title IX does not apply to private schools (usually religious nonprofit schools) that refuse federal financial assistance. Some lawsuits, such as Buettner-Hartsoe v. Baltimore Lutheran High School Association, have argued that, as non-profits, these schools’ tax-exempt status is a form of federal financial assistance. They have been unsuccessful.