The Department of Education has published its proposed new regulations concerning Title IX investigations and hearings.  Now is the time for educators and their professional organizations to speak up.  Of course everyone is free to comment about anything, but the DOE has specifically identified nine areas where they solicit feedback, and the first one is about the application of these regs in the K-12 world.  Key Quote:

The Department is interested in whether there are parts of the proposed rule that will be unworkable at the elementary and secondary school level…

My first response to that is: where shall we start?  Unworkable?  Yes—unless the DOE is going to provide a massive infusion of money to retain and train coordinators, investigators and decision makers.  The formality of the process laid out in the regulations is designed to ensure due process.  Maybe it does that, but it also creates a legalistic, formal, costly process.  The grievance procedures required by the proposed regulations are every bit as legalistic, formal and costly as are the procedures for special education due process hearings. Thus we can safely predict that a cottage industry will rise up to advise and train school personnel regarding all this process.

So now is the time to study the impact of the proposed regulations, and provide comments. I feel sure that the national Council of School Attorneys will be making some comments.  I will stay on top of that and let you know what the COSA lawyers think about all this.

DAWG BONE: GO TO WWW.REGULATIONS.GOV TO MAKE COMMENTS ELECTRONICALLY.

See you next week!