On February 10, Susan Smith wrote inquiring about the scope of the problem
of sexual harassment from the national perspective. She asked about the number
of sexual harassment complaints that OCR currently has, whether this represents
an increase from previous years, what OCR's approach is in resolving these
cases, and whether OCR uses any method other than complaints to identify schools
that may not be meeting their obligations to prevent sexual harassment under
Title IX.
Susan, thank you for asking. I hope that the following information
will be helpful.
Because I believe that the most useful basis for comparing complaints
received is based on the entire fiscal year, the following are statistics on
sexual harassment complaints received for the 5 most recent fiscal years (ES
stands for elementary and secondary, PS means postsecondary, and other means a
type of recipient other than ES or PS):
FY 1998 -- 166 total (102 ES; 63 PS; 1 other)
FY 1997 -- 219 total (125 ES; 84 PS; 10 other)
FY 1996 -- 163 total (78 ES; 81 PS; 4 other)
FY 1995 -- 170 total (80 ES; 79 PS; 11 other)
FY 1994 -- 166 total (89 ES; 73 PS; 4 other)
Thus, in FY 1997, we saw a substantial increase in sexual harassment
complaints received about schools at the elementary and secondary education
level. In FY 1998, the numbers of complaints about schools at the elementary
and secondary level decreased, but not to the levels of the previous three
years.
In terms of OCR's approach to resolving complaints, OCR's primary objective
is to resolve the complainant's allegations promptly and appropriately. OCR has
a variety of tools for resolving complaints. For example, OCR may facilitate a
resolution between the parties (the recipient school and complainant), OCR may
negotiate an agreement for corrective action with the recipient school, or,
where an OCR investigation establishes that there is a violation and negotiation
of voluntary compliance has been unsuccessful at that stage, OCR will issue a
letter of findings informing the recipient school of the violation and take
appropriate steps to move to enforcement (either through administrative hearing,
which may result in fund termination, or through referral to the Department of
Justice for judicial enforcement). OCR uses these approaches to resolve
complaints in order to provide timely and effective intervention at the
beginning of the complaint process, to focus on achieving institutional change,
if appropriate, and to make students, parents, and school officials central to
the resolution of complaints. Anyone interested in more information about OCR's
case resolution process can obtain a summary of these procedures by contacting
any OCR office.
OCR considers the development and implementation of effective corrective
action to be critical to ensuring nondiscrimination. OCR monitors corrective
agreements to ensure that recipients comply with their commitments and comply
with the law.
OCR recognizes that not all discrimination can be addressed simply by
responding to complaints from the public. For this reason OCR also reviews the
practices of educational institutions to ensure they are complying with the
civil rights laws. These agency-initiated cases are called "compliance
reviews." Decisions to conduct compliance reviews are based on a variety of
information, including information provided by parents, education groups, media,
community organizations, and the general public, with solid leads confirmed with
objective data from various sources.
Because preventing and eliminating sexual harassment in schools and making
schools safe and secure places in which to learn is such a high priority for
OCR, OCR issued guidance on this issue. The guidance sets out the legal
standards on issues such as what is sexual harassment prohibited by Title IX and
what should a school do when it learns of possible sexual harassment. These are
the standards that OCR uses in resolving sexual harassment cases. In issuing
the guidance and communicating these standards widely, OCR also intended to
assist educators, parents, and students to better understand this issue so that
they would be able to recognize and address problems associated with sexual
harassment on a proactive basis. School personnel who understand their
obligations under Title IX are in the best position to exercise sound judgment
and take the appropriate steps to prevent and respond to harassment.
In addition to responding to complaints, conducting compliance reviews, and
publishing guidance, OCR provides technical assistance to help specific
federally assisted educational institutions comply with the civil rights
laws and to help their students and employees understand rights and
responsibilities under these laws. OCR provides technical assistance, as
requested, through onsite consultations, conference sponsorship and
participation, training classes, community meetings and the internet. OCR also
provides information in response to letters and telephone inquiries received
from parents, students, educators, as well as from the federal, state and local
governments. (Because Susan's inquiry mentioned an article in the Boston Globe,
I contacted OCR's Boston office to ask about any technical assistance efforts
in the works. A conference for teams of Boston-area school district
administrators who deal with sexual harassment issues is in the planning stages
for April.)
Doreen Dennis
Attorney, OCR
doreen_dennis@ed.gov
A Note from the EDEQUITY Administrators:
For those EDEQUITY members in the Boston area, the OCR Title IX conference will
be held on April 26 at Northeastern University. The WEEA Equity Resource Center
has been working with OCR to plan this conference, along with representatives
from local school districts, advocacy organizations, community groups, law
enforcement, foundations, and the Massachusetts Department of Education. We
will post additional information about the event as it becomes available.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Apr 12 2002 - 15:14:11 EDT