Update (sort of) on Federal Title IX Regulations

There has been some chatter in the profession (via ATIXA) this week about the potential for the Department of Education (ED) to miss the projected October release date for the new Title IX regulations. The basis for this speculation is that the final regulations have not yet been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, as is required prior to being published in the Federal Register. With September starting tomorrow, the 30 to 90-day window for an OMB review now means the regulations might be pushed back even further.

I want to stress the word might. There has so far been nothing from ED to confirm or deny this speculation, and it is conceivable that OMB may not need the full time available to review the regulations. Nonetheless, it is now prompting discussion in SECO as to what our contingency plans will be in the event that we are looking at a release of final regulations after October.

Just to offer some perspective, we are currently on our sixth draft of a new System Regulation 08.01.01, which is directly affected by the federal changes. All training for investigators, designated administrators, informal resolution facilitators, and advisors has either been completed or will be completed today (this afternoon’s scheduled Advisor Training), and training for hearing officers and hearing panels will continue at this time based on member request. So the biggest current takeaway for us is a delay in implementing new training programs and ridding ourselves of vestiges of the current regulations that we are not satisfied with. At this time, Dora Lisa and I are reviewing the current regulation to see if we will request any interim changes if ED confirms that there will be another delay in the regulations. In short, we feel that our work to date has placed us in an advantageous spot to be prepared to move forward no matter when the regulations are released. In the meantime, we will continue developing the operations manual and member resources so that everything will be in place for the implementation of forthcoming rules changes.

As always, please contact us with any questions that you have.

UPDATE: This morning we received a link to an article that was just published on this point. Read the article here.