Selecting Title IX Coordinator Important Task for Schools

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs and activities in federally funded schools at all levels. If any part of a school, school district or college receives any Federal funds for any purpose, all of its operations are covered by Title IX.

According to the Title IX regulations, “Each recipient shall designate at least one employee to coordinate its efforts to comply with and carry out its responsibilities under this part, including any investigation of any complaint communicated to such recipient alleging its noncompliance with this part, or alleging any actions which would be prohibited by this part.” 34 CFR 106.8 (a).

This employee is generally referred to as the Title IX coordinator. This position must not be left vacant, and all students and employees must be notified of the Title IX coordinator’s contact information.

The school district is ultimately responsible for ensuring that it complies with Title IX and other laws. The Title IX coordinator is an integral part of the district’s systematic approach to ensuring nondiscrimination, including a nondiscriminatory environment. They must be free from conflicts of interest and bias when administering the grievance process. The Title IX coordinator can be an effective agent for ensuring gender equity within their schools only when the coordinator is provided with the appropriate authority and support necessary to coordinate the school’s Title IX compliance, including access to all the school’s information and resources.

Schools must adopt a written job description for the school’s Title IX coordinator that describes that position’s responsibilities:

• Ensuring the school’s compliance with Title IX’s administrative requirements

• Ensure a commitment to educational equity.

• Implement the school’s Title IX policies and complaint procedures.

• Conduct investigations of complaints and recommend disciplinary action, if warranted, to the administration or the school board.

• Disseminate the school district’s nondiscrimination policy to parents and students.

• Keep current on changes to Title IX regulations and report to the board or the administration when changes in Title IX’s law or regulations require revisions to the school’s Title IX policies and practices.

• Collecting and analyzing information related to Title IX compliance

• Monitoring students’ participation in athletics and across academic disciplines to identify programs with disproportionate enrollment based on sex and ensure that sex discrimination is not causing any disproportionality or negatively affecting a student’s equal educational opportunities.

• Develop a method to survey school climate and coordinate the collection and assessment of information from that survey.

• Collaborate with the school district’s athletic director to ensure Title IX athletics compliance in all areas of the Title IX framework.

• Provide comprehensive and continuous training.

• Regularly assess the adequacy of the school’s current training opportunities and programs and initiate improvements as appropriate.

• Ensure continuous training for all school district personnel, students and athletic coaches to ensure that they know their obligations under Title IX.

The Title IX coordinator’s role should be independent to avoid any potential conflicts of interest, and the Title IX coordinator should report directly to the school district superintendent. Granting the Title IX coordinator this independence also ensures that the superintendent is fully informed of any Title IX issues that arise and that the Title IX coordinator has the appropriate authority – formal and informal – to effectively coordinate the school’s compliance with Title IX.

When designating a Title IX coordinator, school district leadership should be careful to avoid designating an employee who has other job responsibilities that might create a conflict of interest. For example, designating a school solicitor, dean of students, superintendent, principal or athletic director as the Title IX coordinator may pose a conflict of interest. It is generally recommended that the Title IX coordinator not be the athletic director because the Title IX coordinator is often responsible for handling allegations of sex discrimination against the athletic department.

Designating a full-time Title IX coordinator will minimize the risk of conflict of interest and in many cases ensure sufficient time is available to perform all the roles and responsibilities of the position. If the school district designates one employee to coordinate the school’s compliance with Title IX and other related laws, it is critical that the employee has the qualifications, training, authority and time to address all complaints throughout the school district, including those raising Title IX issues. If the Title IX coordinator position is not a fulltime position, then the school district must ensure that the person designated as the district Title IX coordinator has those job duties and responsibilities.

Although not required by the law, it may be a good practice for some schools to designate multiple deputy Title IX coordinators. Stated in the Preamble of the 2020 Title IX regulations, “nothing in the final regulations precludes a recipient from designating multiple Title IX Coordinators, nor from designating ‘deputy’ or ‘assistant’ coordinators to whom a Title IX Coordinator delegates responsibilities, nor is a Title IX Coordinator prevented from working with other administrative offices and personnel within a recipient institution in order to ‘coordinate’ the recipient’s efforts to comply with Title IX.” §106.8

Therefore, some school districts may find that designating a deputy Title IX coordinator for each building, school or campus provides students and staff with more comfort and familiarity with the Title IX coordinator. This comfort level may result in more effective training of school personnel on their rights and obligations under Title IX and improved reporting of incidents under the law.

A school district that designates multiple deputy coordinators should designate one lead Title IX coordinator who has ultimate oversight responsibility. All designated deputy coordinators would then report directly to the designated lead Title IX coordinator.

For example, a school district may designate a building principal, director of pupil services, director of special education and the director of athletics as deputy Title IX coordinators. Communication between all deputy coordinators and the lead coordinator is important and critical to ensure that processes and procedures are carried out as required by Title IX law.

Some school districts may consider designating the athletic director as the district’s Title IX coordinator. Understanding that Title IX is not just about athletics, designating a school district’s athletics director may become problematic. The primary responsibilities of the Title IX coordinator are to coordinate the school district’s compliance within all areas of Title IX including grievance procedures for resolving Title IX complaints.

The roles and responsibilities of a school district’s athletic director is all-encompassing in the context of school administrative jobs. School athletic directors are responsible with all the administrative duties in the same manner as building principals and district level administrators. Designating the athletic director as the school district’s Title IX coordinator also subjects that employee to potential conflict of interest. While sexual harassment complaints fall under the purview of the Title IX coordinator, incidents of sexual harassment in a school’s athletic program creates an untenable circumstance for the athletic director who is also the district’s Title IX coordinator.

A school’s Title IX coordinator plays an essential role in helping to ensure that every person affected by the operations of the school including students, parents and employees is aware of the legal rights Title IX affords and that the school district and its leadership comply with their legal obligations under the law.

To be effective, a Title IX coordinator must have full support of the school’s educational leadership and school board. It is, therefore, critical that school district decision-makers and influencers designate a school district employee as the Title IX coordinator who is trained and knowledgeable about the requirements and implementations of Title IX law in the school environment.