In addition to extending Plan C from four to nine weeks during an Aug. 10 meeting, the Chatham County Board of Education also unanimously approved policy revisions related to Title IX, a federal civil rights law that protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal funding.
These new regulations went into effect Aug. 14 — and had to be reworked into the policies at individual districts across the county — after the U.S. Department of Education published them in May. Educational institutions had fewer than 100 days to comply with the rules, which spanned some 2,000 pages of regulations. Among many other things, the new rules expanded the definition of sexual harassment to include sexual assault, dating and domestic violence and stalking as “unlawful discrimination on the basis of sex.” The sweeping policies also included new guidelines for reporting sexual harassment and an updated legal framework for survivors, schools and the accused — part of the new law that has been criticized by advocates for sexual assault survivors.
“Today marks a new era in the storied history of Title IX in which the right to equal access to education required by law is truly protected for all students,” Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said when she announced the new rules May 6. “Every student should know that their school will be held accountable for responding to incidents of sexual misconduct and that it must treat all students fairly. This rule, as courts have recently noted, restores balance to the scales of justice in our schools, ending one of the most infamous and damaging overreaches of the previous administration.”
In Chatham County Schools, the new rules resulted in the rescinding of two policies in the district’s current manual, updating of three existing policies and adoption of seven new policies and one regulation. While Title IX is often associated with colleges and sexual assault cases, Janice Frazier, the CCS associate superintendent of human resources, said Title IX and other state laws related to bullying and harassment are critical to proactively maintaining a safe learning and working environment at school.
“Before the board adopted these new policies, absolutely we were already ensuring compliance and responsiveness to concerns — not just to comply but to take care of our students and employees,” Frazier said. “Compliance is important, but the goal is always, tothe very best of our ability and the greatest extent possible that we’re able, to ensure that our employees and our students are cared for when concerns arise.”
Frazier added that the new and updated policies did not change which complaints and concerns were being listened and responded to, but rather, in some cases, how they were being addressed. The new policies primarily add more specific details about how reports are filed in different scenarios, and how allegations are handled. The Department of Education lists the following items, among others and those already mentioned, as key provisions of the new regulation:
• Require schools to offer clear, accessible options for any person to report sexual harassment
• Require schools to offer survivors supportive measures, such as class or dorm reassignments or no-contact orders
• Protect K-12 students by requiring elementary and secondary schools to respond promptly when any school employee has notice of sexual harassment
• Require schools to offer an equal right of appeal for both parties to a Title IX proceeding
• Give schools flexibility to use technology to conduct Title IX investigations and hearings remotely
“Again, I don’t want the point to be lost to the public that just because there are now new procedures in place, concerns and issues weren’t being addressed before,” Frazier said of the new regulations and rewritten CCS policies. “They absolutely were (followed) very thoroughly — our existing policy, 1710, and the companion policy, 1720, was very, very comprehensive in the requirements that it laid out methods for responding to those concerns.”
You can see an overview of the adopted CCS revisions online at: www.bit.ly/2FO4vfA.
Reporter Hannah McClellan can be reached at hannah@chathamnr.com.