Federal Updates
So when are the new Title IX regulations going to be released?
That is the question on everyone’s mind of late, and despite the fact that we are only days away from the beginning of May, we have no more certainty than we did a few months ago. So here is what we know about the impending timeline.
The Department of Education (ED) indicated that they anticipated releasing the new regulations in May 2023. Prior to that happening, ED needs to send them to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA, pronounced “oh-eye-ruh”). Among other things, OIRA reviews draft proposed and final rules under Executive Order 12866 and develops and oversees the implementation of government-wide policies in the areas of information policy, privacy, and statistical policy. While there is no minimum time requirement for approval, OIRA’s review can generally take anywhere from 30 to (a maximum of) 90 days.
Even assuming a quick pass through OIRA, the thirty-day clock has not started yet. Therefore it is looking like at the earliest OIRA would be sending the regulations back to ED by the end of May. So what implications does this have for the A&M System, our regulation, and the training we have planned for this summer?
As long as ED submits the final regulations to OIRA in the next several weeks, we should be able to maintain our training timeline. The submission to OIRA is publicly available, so we will know when it takes place. We have good reason to believe that our proposed regulation (now in its fifth draft) should be 90% to 95% compliant with the anticipated changes to the federal regulations. As a result we would be able to move ahead with our training and be able to follow up with our members about any substantive differences between the proposed regulations issued last year and the final version.
However, if we get to mid-May and we still have not seen ED submit the regulations to OIRA, we will have to further evaluate our summer training calendar. We do anticipate some training programs would still take place, but others would have to be deferred until we have seen the federal regulations submitted for final review. More information will be provided as this situation unfolds, but we did want you to be aware of the timeline issue that we may be facing.
