U.S. Department of Education Opens Title IX Investigation into Los Angeles Unified School District

The Los Angeles Unified School District (the District) appears to be protecting sexual predators at the expense of its students. Today, in response, the U.S. Department of Education (the Department)'s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) opened a directed investigation into the District for policies that appear to automatically reassign teachers accused of sexual misconduct with students, including engaging in exploitative "romantic relationships," to another school. OCR will determine whether the District's handling of alleged sexual harassment, including sexual assault, by District teachers, administrators, and/or staff violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX).

The District's policy was cemented in an agreement with the teachers' union that appears to guarantee that teachers will be reassigned, not terminated or immediately removed from student-facing roles while officials investigate, when they are credibly accused of:

• Sexual harassment of a student;

• Behavior with a student that is motivated by sexual interest;

• Maintaining a sexual or romantic relationship with a student or other minor;

• Creating, selling, or using child pornography;

• Unnecessary physical contact with a student; and,

• Failure to report suspected child abuse.

"Under Title IX, schools must respond appropriately and address claims of sexual misconduct, including sexual harassment and assault, in a timely manner, but the District seems to be putting the continued employment of sexual predators above the safety of students," said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey. "It is unconscionable that the District would simply ignore Title IX's procedural requirements to protect teachers who cause life-changing harm to their kids. The Trump Administration will always fight to uphold the law, protect the safety of all students, and restore common sense to our schools."

Background

This investigation builds on the Department's 2020 National Initiative launched in President Trump's first term to address sexual assault in K-12 schools. As a part of that initiative, OCR conducted nationwide compliance reviews in schools and districts, examining how sexual assault cases are handled under Title IX, including sexual incidents involving teachers and school staff. OCR worked with school districts to identify and correct compliance concerns.

The Department launched Public Awareness and Support efforts where OCR focused on raising awareness of the issue of sexual assault in K-12 schools, including by making information available to educators, school leaders, parents and families. OCR conducted the first-ever targeted Data Quality Reviews on the sexual assault/offenses data submitted by school districts through the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC). OCR partnered with the National Center for Education Statistics to work with districts to ensure that incidents of sexual assault/sexual offenses were being accurately recorded and reported through the data collection. Most significantly, OCR added more detailed data collections on sexual assault to the CRDC that encompassed incidents perpetrated by teachers, school staff, and/or school personnel, including sexual misconduct with students. The data elements, later proposed to be eliminated by the Biden Administration, were finalized and made the CRDC collection the first universal collection to gather such data systemically by school.

Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.