WASHINGTON, D.C. — More than 125 civil rights organizations, education groups and survivor advocates today called on Congress to intervene amid the U.S. Department of Education’s failure to enforce federal Title IX protections against sexual violence in schools, which have left student survivors without meaningful accountability or support.
The National Women’s Law Center Action Fund led the coalition in a letter to congressional leaders urging them to hold Education Secretary Linda McMahon answerable for the department’s failure to meaningfully enforce Title IX and address rampant sexual violence in schools. Since the current Trump administration took office, the department has resolved only one known Title IX agreement involving sexual violence, the group noted. Instead, the administration has pursued efforts that weaken Title IX protections, shift civil rights enforcement away from the Education Department, and unlawfully target transgender students.
The coalition warned that the department’s actions threaten survivors’ equal access to education, sending a dangerous message that addressing sexual violence in K-12 schools and higher education is not a priority.
“As seen through the recent, horrific accounts from Cornell University and Louisiana State University, when schools do not respond appropriately, survivors are denied equal educational opportunities,” the groups said in their letter. “Students, survivors, and advocates are exhausted and outraged to be dealing again with the epidemic of sexual violence in education with little accountability and little support for survivors.”
Read the full letter here.
Shiwali Patel, senior director of education justice for the National Women’s Law Center Action Fund, said the consequences extend far beyond Cornell and LSU.
“We need Congress to do their job because right now, students are being egregiously harmed and betrayed over and over: by rampant sexual violence in education, by institutions that deny survivors meaningful responses and support to protect their access to education, and by a Department of Education that has turned its back on student survivors,” she said.
The coalition in its letter called on Congress to:
- Demand answers from Secretary McMachon about the department’s failure to address sexual violence in schools.
- Protect federal civil rights enforcement by blocking the transfer of the Office of Civil Rights’ functions out of the Department of Education.
- Prioritize sexual violence complaints by directing the Office for Civil Rights to investigate and resolve outstanding Title IX cases and by preventing the Office from using the law to target schools with programs inclusive of transgender students.
The NAACP, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, National Education Association and the National Organization for Women were among the more than 125 organizations that signed the letter.