Reversion to 2020 Title IX Policy: How it Affects Reed Students and What We Need to Know
Last month, a federal judge overturned the Biden administration’s recent revisions to the federal Title IX regulations that went into effect last August. A number of substantial changes have come as a result of the rollback, such as the decision to no longer treat people of marginalized gender expression and sexual orientations as protected classes. Despite that change, the state of Oregon still offers broader protections than those specified at the federal level, and Reed will continue to maintain policies that align with its community values while still minimizing the need for significant changes as federal policy remains uncertain. The Quest reached out to Reed’s Title IX and 504 Coordinator, Christy Martin, for a holistic view on how these changes affect Reed and its student body.
Changes to the federal Title IX policy affect any federally-funded school or university in the United States, meaning Reed is no exception. Effectively, any school that offers financial aid is forced to comply with federal Title IX regulations. The current changes to the Title IX policy have come very quickly after the revisions at the beginning of Reed’s fall semester. Martin explained that “a Dear Colleague letter [has] come out from the Department of Education that is very explicit about not including gender expression or sexual orientation in Title IX as protected classes,” and that otherwise the changes exclusively serve to revert Title IX to the previous guidelines implemented in 2020, rather than the new wave of 2024 regulations.
Even with these federal changes, many states have their own statutes and regulations surrounding their Title IX policies. In particular, Oregon includes expanded definitions of sex and gender in its state regulations, which are still permitted alongside the overarching federal regulations. As a result, Reed is allowed to work with a significant amount of flexibility due to lenient state policy. Martin hopes to develop “a policy and procedures in alignment with our regulations and community values…so that, as there are changes at the federal level, we can keep tweaking [the policy],” to prevent Reed from needing to undergo significant shifts in Title IX policy if sudden federal changes continue to happen in the future. Martin and her Title IX work group are hoping to have a concrete policy and a clear direction going forward, to both accommodate for recent changes and simultaneously incorporate as much of the positive work done with the 2024 guideline update as possible.
Although the federal regulations have changed, some of the different guidelines are minimum requirements, rather than strict rules describing exactly how to handle certain situations. Martin elaborated that “most of the Title IX regulations are minimums…that give some discretion to look at best practice…in a way that makes sense to us.” The flexibility given by allowing schools to individually interpret regulations in a way that works for them is a significant boon for Reed, allowing the college to continue to proceed with a Title IX policy that supports and enfranchises all students to receive the same equitable treatment.
A significant change with the rollback of regulations is the removal of the asynchronous hearing process granted by the 2024 regulations update, while the expansion of what counts as sex-based discrimination under Title IX has also been rolled back. As a result, asynchronous hearings, a change intended to reduce tension during the hearing process, are no longer applicable with the return to 2020’s Title IX regulations. However, this comes as a simultaneous blessing for students. Misconduct previously covered by the Discriminatory Harassment and Harm Policy (DHSM) which the 2024 updates placed under the scope of Title IX once again falls under the DHSM or other systems, which means positive changes like asynchronous hearings may still apply. Furthermore, Martin encouraged students not to feel “pressure to figure out… what bucket [an incident] falls into. You don’t have to do all the work to figure out where it fits,” stressing that despite the changes to Title IX policy, the related reporting process will remain as seamless as possible for students.
The guidelines that decided who at Reed qualifies as an obligated reporter have also effectively not changed. Despite the framework of Title IX changing, all of Reed’s obligated reporter training remains both applicable and relevant. While some behaviors will now be prohibited under Reed’s institutional policy and state governance instead of Title IX, obligated reporters will still be equipped to handle and assist with anything relating to those behaviors, as they were last semester. The goal of this, as with all other adoptions of the reversion to 2020 policy, is to minimize confusion to students, despite the potentially mystifying extent of changes.
Perhaps most substantially, the return to 2020’s Title IX regulations is retroactive and took effect immediately as of January 8, 2025, unlike any previous changes to Title IX. This means that, as a departure from the norm, reports or complaints filed before the reversion to the 2020 regulations will not still be conducted under the updated 2024 regulations, and will instead now operate under the guidelines of the 2020 regulations. This may significantly impact ongoing cases, but Martin said that Reed is well-equipped to deal with this sudden change, noting that “lots of schools are scrambling” to adjust.
The Quest previously reported on the 2024 regulation changes in the Nov. 8, 2024 issue, highlighting the relevant changes in policy that had taken place, which are now being rolled back. These changes are undeniably incredibly significant, but Reed is dedicated to minimizing their impact on students and maintaining the best practices possible, including salvaging as much of the 2024 regulation update as possible. It is important now, more than ever, to ensure that students are receiving proper support and guidance, and are able to make informed decisions regarding their own choices. Any further questions can be directed to Christy Martin, who can be reached via email at cmartin@reed.edu, or her meeting link, available at christymartin.youcanbook.me. These resources and more are also available on the Reed College Title IX web page.