Category: Federal Government Actions

Breaking News: Final Title IX Rule Issued This Morning (April 19, 2024)

From K-12 Dive

Today, April 19, 2024, the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) issued its long-awaited Title IX rule, which for the first time enshrines protections for LGBTQI+ students and employees, as well as pregnant students and employees,under the civil rights law that prevents sex-based discrimination in federally funded education programs.Ā 

ā€œNo one should have to give up their dreams of attending or finishing school because theyā€™re pregnant,ā€ said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona in a press briefing late Thursday. ā€œNo one should face bullying or discrimination just because of who they are or who they love. Sadly, this happens all too often.ā€

Among other changes, the new rule defines sex-based harassment as including harassment based on sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy and related conditions, and gender identity and sexual orientation.  It cements federal protections for LGTBQI+ students and employees that have swung between administrations for over a decade.

The new regulations also:

  • Require that schools assume an accused student is innocent at the outset of an investigation.
  • Give schools the ability to offer an informal resolution process, except in cases of student allegations against employees. 
  • Require schools to provide breastfeeding rooms for students and employees.
  • Protect students and employees with medical conditions related to, or who are recovering from, termination of pregnancy. 
  • Revive the single-investigator model, which allows an individual to serve as both the case decision-maker and Title IX investigator.
  • Provide more discretion to schools and colleges to tailor Title IX policies based on their size, age of students, and administrative structures. 
  • Make questioning at live hearings optional for colleges and universities.
  • Have institutions largely rely on the ā€œpreponderance of the evidenceā€ standard often used in civil lawsuits, making optional the ā€œclear and convincingā€ standard.

The ruleā€™s anticipated changes were expected to largely overhaul higher education requirements under the 2020 regulations put in place by former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and make lesser tweaks to K-12 portions of the rule.Ā 

For more details from K-12 Dive, click here.

Billing Concerns Delay Proposed School-based Medicaid Rule (April 13, 2024)

Concerns over negative impacts to studentsā€™ out-of-school public insurance benefits appear to be delaying the release of a U.S. Department of Education (USDE) final rule that is supposed to ease the process of obtaining parental consent for Medicaid school-based health services. While some worry that childrenā€™s school-based services can adversely affect outside services, there appears to be no concrete examples of such. In fact, parental consent forms allowing for school-based Medicaid billing explicitly state that such permissions will not affect lifetime coverage or any other insured benefits.

However, last August 26th organizations said in a letter to the USDE that, ā€œParents are routinely informed, sometimes even after services in other settings have already been rendered, that the Medicaid agency has deemed them duplicative with school-based services and their coverage is denied.ā€

The final rule was expected to be released in January and there is still no release date in sight.

For more from K-12 Dive, click here.

USDE Sends Dear Colleague Letter Urging Schools to Address 2024-25 Attendance Issues (March 28, 2024)

On March 22, 2024, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona sent a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) informing schools that ā€œthere is still more work to doā€ to address chronic student absenteeism as the 2024-25 approaches.
Thus far, many school districts have increased home visits and utilized dashboards to effectively track attendance.
In his letter, Sec. Cardona urged schools to use accountability systems to measure chronic absenteeism to identify schools for support and improvement. He also enjoined each state to commit to helping students attend and engage in school daily, ensure more students attend regularly for the rest of the 2023-24 school year, and to lay a foundation now for more progress in the 2024-25 school year.
Click here to access the DCL.

Due to Miscalculation of Data, FAFSA Forms Corrections are Now the Latest Delay (March 28, 2024)

On March 25, 2024, the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) announced that the ability for students to make updates and corrections to their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms in the first half of April. This is another delay in a process that has been rife with delays and technical issues.

In advance of that implementation, USDE will provide detailed information to partners, students, and families on how to correct the most common FAFSA form errors including no signatures and selecting ā€˜yesā€™ to applying for unsubsidized loans only (Question 8).

The reason for this most recent delay is due to a recently identified a vendor issue that was incorrectly calculating the Student Aid Index for records of dependent students with assets. That issue has now been resolved.

To date, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) has processed more than 4.3 million FAFSA forms and delivered ISIRs to the majority of schools, states, and designated scholarship organizations.

Click here for more information from the USDE.

USDE, HHS, and PaTTAN Provide Student Discipline and Inclusion Guidance to LEAs (March 25, 2024)

On March 25, 2024, Bureau of Special Education Director Carole L. Clancy sent a PENN*LINK message to all LEAs with the subject line Recent Guidance issued by the U.S. Departments of Education, Health and Human Services and PaTTAN. That message states that, for the 2023-24 school year, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE), Bureau of Special Education (BSE) is sharing updated links to recent guidance issued by the U.S. Departments of Education (USDE) and Health and Human Services (HHS). The links below will cover the topics of discipline provisions for students with disabilities as set forth in the Individuals with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), inclusion of students with disabilities in early childhood programs, general supervision responsibilities, student discipline under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, military-connected children with disabilities and Intervener Services. These links are provided for review.

For additional information, please visit the following sites.

For questions about the recent guidance, please email Tim Krushinski [email protected].