Credit: Wikimedia

CIF appear Mon that fall sports will be pushed back to December; Winter sports -- including girls soccer -- will also be pushed dorsum.

The U.South. Department of Education issued new guidance on Fri reminding K-12 school districts that, like colleges and universities, they also must have systems in place to address sexual harassment and ensure equal opportunities for male and female athletes.

Such systems are required under Title Nine of the Education Amendments of 1972.

The guidance comes against a backdrop of national concern about sexual assaults on college campuses. The Department has published a list of about 100 colleges it is investigating regarding how they take handled such complaints.

The federal guidance reiterates that school districts must designate a Title IX coordinator to inform students about their rights and instruct administrators almost their responsibilities under the law. Key areas of compliance include ensuring equitable athletic opportunities for girls and boys, providing educational opportunities for meaning and parenting teenagers, and addressing sexual activity-based harassment.

Title Nine is "37 words that actually changed everything in the United states of america for women and girls," said state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara.

In advising schoolhouse districts, Catherine E. Lhamon, banana secretary for civil rights in the U.S. Department of Education, said that "some of the most egregious and harmful Championship Nine violations occur when a recipient fails to designate a Title IX coordinator" or when a Title IX coordinator "has non been sufficiently trained or given the advisable level of authority."

The guidance is the latest attempt by the federal government and the California Department of Education, which have issued previous guidance messages, to prod districts into compliance with Championship 9, which prohibits discrimination based on gender in federally funded educational programs.

The guidance comes as a bill that aims to better Thou-12 training in Title Nine regulations is moving through the California Legislature. Senate Bill 429, authored by state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, would address what the California Department of Education, the San Francisco office of the federal Office for Ceremonious Rights and other groups have said is a critical need for training for school personnel.

Districts have been required to take a Title IX coordinator since 1975. Underscoring the need for the legislation, Kim Turner, an attorney for the Fair Play for Girls in Sports project of the San Francisco-based Legal Assistance Society-Employment Law Center, said many California school districts are out of compliance or unaware of their responsibilities under the law. "Title IX is poorly understood," Turner said.

In 2007, the Legal Aid Club-Employment Law Centre successfully brought accommodate confronting Sweetwater Matrimony High School District on behalf of Veronica Ollier and other female loftier school softball players alleging unequal handling. The instance detailed in words and photographs the superior condition of the playing fields, equipment, dugout and concession stands for the boys' baseball squad, while the girls' softball fields were littered, worn and rutted. The case besides argued that the love girls' softball bus was fired past the commune in retaliation after Title IX complaints were made.

The U.Southward. Commune Court for the Southern District of California ruled in favor of Ollier in 2022 on both the caitiff conditions and the retaliatory firing of the coach. The verdict in Ollier et al. v. Sweetwater was upheld on appeal in 2022 in a ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

At a hearing in Sacramento in January, state Sen. Jackson called Title IX "37 words that really inverse everything in the United States for women and girls." She read the 37 words at the hearing: "No person in the The states shall, on the ground of sex activity, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or exist subjected to discrimination nether whatever educational activity program or activeness receiving federal financial assistance."

Jackson's beak would require the California Department of Instruction to designate a county office of education to create an instructional video, paid for past the state, most Title Nine compliance. The bill passed the Senate Education Committee on Apr eight and has been referred to the Senate Commission on Appropriations, where it is scheduled to be heard on May 4.  Supporters include the Clan of California School Administrators, the Junior Leagues of California, the California Women'south Law Heart and Country Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson.

To get more than reports similar this i, click here to sign up for EdSource's no-cost daily electronic mail on latest developments in teaching.