Title IX Update: Advice for Students in States where the Title IX 2024 Rule is Currently Blocked

August 30. 2024

The following does not constitute legal advice. It is general information put forth by the ACLU in conjunction with partner organizations, including Equal Rights Advocates.

For more on your Title IX rights and advice from other survivors, attorneys, and advocates, view our Student Survivor Toolkit.

In states and schools where the 2024 Title IX rule is currently enjoined, students still have Title IX protections, and may bring lawsuits against their schools to vindicate these rights. Contact ERA if you have questions about these universal rights, described below. Also remember that the fight over the new regulations is ongoing, and these preliminary (temporary) injunctions may be lifted.

• The 2024 Title IX rule is preliminarily enjoined (paused) in these states: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

The following is still true, and nearly every U.S. school must still comply with the below, even those in the states listed above where the 2024 Rule is currently blocked:

• Title IX still prohibits discrimination against LGBTQIA+ students, as several federal courts of appeal have confirmed. The Fourth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits have all decided that most schools are required to protect students from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or both. States where this right has been explicitly confirmed as protected include:
  • Alaska, Arizona, Guam, Hawaii, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia,  West Virginia, California, Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin
• All schools should comply with 2024 provisions clarifying the rights of pregnant and postpartum students. Ongoing lawsuits do not challenge the regulations’ protections for pregnant and parenting students, and the injunctions do not prohibit schools from adopting the new rules; they only prevent the Department of Education from enforcing them.
• Title IX already protects pregnant and parenting students from discrimination. Nothing in the injunctions prevents the Department of Education from finding that a school has violated Title IX if, for example, the school refuses to allow a pregnant student to reschedule an exam that they missed due to a doctor’s appointment, or refuses to let a student take a leave of absence to recover from childbirth. Schools can and should also provide clean, private lactation spaces.

The 2024 Rule also continues to prohibit schools from discriminating against students who have miscarriages or abortions.

• In states and schools that are currently subject to injunctions, the requirements of the 2020 Rule remain in effect. Both the 2020 and 2024 Rules require schools to, among other things:
  • protect students from sex-based stereotyping
  • respond promptly to reports of sexual harassment made to any employee of a K–12 school
  • offer supportive measures and remedies to restore or preserve survivors’ access to education. Supportive measures schools can provide to student survivors include:
    • retroactive withdrawals
    • extensions of deadlines
    • adjustments to transcripts
    • tuition reimbursements
    • follow certain procedures in student disciplinary proceedings
• Many state and local laws require schools to do even more than Title IX or its regulations require (including SB 493 in California). Nothing in the temporary 2024 Rule blocks relieve schools of the requirement to comply with such state and local laws.

Click here for advice to schools (administrators, teachers, and decision makers).