By Susan Moen
Susan Moen is an award-winning victim advocate, educator, Title IX advocate, and founder of JC SART, Oregon. This article expands her presentation for the Clearinghouse on Women’s Issues, January 2026.
At a time when oversight from the U.S. Department of Education has been significantly weakened, students and communities can turn to laws and policies other than Title IX to address discrimination, harassment, and gender-based violence, particularly in K-12 settings.
In 2016, the Obama-era “Dear Colleague Letter” provided clear definitions of what constituted a Title IX violation and outlined how schools were required to respond. But in 2020—and again reinforced in 2025—we saw major changes to Title IX definitions and enforcement. These changes weakened protections and left students and school staff more vulnerable to unchecked violence, while restricting pathways to appropriate and effective school responses.
The 2020 Title IX rule narrowed the scope of conduct that schools are required to address and effectively ended access to meaningful Office for Civil Rights (OCR) investigations when schools fail to respond appropriately. As a result, the safety of students at school, particularly those from marginalized communities, has been weakened.
The question becomes: what do students do now when they experience harm at school? What’s needed are more robust alternatives to the weakened Title IX regulations—tools that students, families, and communities can learn about and use to prevent and respond to gender-based violence in schools.
As a community advocate working with survivors of gender-based violence, I often help clients explore multiple paths to maintain access to a safe, harassment-free education. All of them require that students and caregivers learn about the resources and legal tools available in their communities.
The first place to start is with school district policies. Every school district is required to have internal disciplinary policies that define discrimination, harassment, and abuse. In many cases, these policies are broader and more protective than the current federal Title IX regulations.
When the Biden administration released its 2024 rewrite of Title IX guidance, some school districts revised their policies immediately to incorporate the expanded protections dictated by this new guidance. Even though that rule was later blocked in 2025, many districts retained those expanded protections as part of their school-specific policies, including protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics.
District policies may also require schools to respond to off-campus conduct if it impacts a student’s sense of safety on campus, and they often include broader definitions of what constitutes a hostile environment. All school policies, both Title IX and internal policies, must be clearly labeled and publicly accessible on the district’s website.
Schools can have great inclusive policies addressing discrimination and harassment, but of course strong policies only matter if schools adhere to them. Unfortunately, many administrators either do not fully understand their obligations or actively choose not to comply. With OCR complaint pathways currently blocked, students and families often must look elsewhere to hold schools accountable.
This is where state laws become critical. Every state has legislation governing how schools must respond to discrimination and harassment, often with separate statutes for K-12 and higher education. In Oregon, for example, House Bill 3077 applies to K-12 schools, while House Bill 3415 and Senate Bill 759 apply to higher education. These laws frequently provide more extensive rights and remedies than Title IX.
State laws are generally easy to locate online through keyword searches, and there is also an excellent state-by-state guide from Legal Momentum, “Know Your Rights: A Student’s Guide to Sex-Based Discrimination and Protections by State.” Movement Advancement Project’s Safe School Laws pages and Democracy Maps provide information on state-level protections. RAINN offers a database of state laws defining sexual assault and other sex crimes and their penalties, consent, and child-mandated reporting.
Some cases of gender-based violence and harassment may also fall under mandatory reporting laws and can be investigated by child protective services or law enforcement. But engaging with law enforcement does not feel safe or appropriate for many young people, at least at the outset.
In these situations, confidential advocates who are not mandatory reporters can be invaluable. They can explain reporting options and the criminal justice investigation processes without forcing survivors into systems they may not be ready to enter. These advocates are usually found in local nonprofit organizations that serve survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence.
And finally, there is my favorite approach to enhancing the Title IX rules: grassroots student and community activism. Activism can be a powerful way to pressure schools to improve policies, strengthen responses, and expand protections for the school community.
Effective activism starts with education. Students, parents, and community members need to understand Title IX, relevant state laws, school policies, and community resources. For example, in Ashland, Oregon, I worked with a high school student who had been sexually assaulted in her home by a classmate. She saw the offender frequently on campus where he would make offensive comments and gestures and harass her and her friends on social media. The school response was inadequate, leaving the student largely responsible for her own safety.
At the time, the district’s Title IX and harassment policies were vague and lacked clear guidance on accommodations, safety planning for victims, or fair and thorough investigations. The survivor and her parents educated themselves on Title IX and state law, then educated their friends. The students organized a sit-in at the superintendent’s office, distributing copies of the relevant laws, and demanding policy reform and implementation. Media coverage followed, and parents organized a town hall attended by over a hundred community members where administrators were publicly questioned.
After the town hall, the district created a work group that included students and parents and overhauled its Title IX and disciplinary policies. The survivor later founded a student group called “Got Consent,” which created informational materials and a peer support group for teen survivors.
In a different Oregon high school, an inadequate Title IX investigation into an on-campus assault left the survivor too afraid to attend school, while the offender remained in one of her classes. She and her friends created a student survey about experiences with harassment and violence and how the administration responded. Over a third of the student body participated. As you can imagine, the results were devastating, heartbreaking, and impossible to ignore. The district quickly committed to improving its response and increasing resources and support for student survivors.
Title IX was created to advance gender equity in education and to prevent and respond to gender-based discrimination, harassment, and violence. At times, federal interpretations advanced this mission. The current interpretation, however, falls far short and is increasingly being weaponized, especially against queer, transgender, and marginalized students.
Everyone should learn about the alternatives available in their own communities and to be prepared to act when Title IX fails our students. There are toolkits and additional resources available on the Stop Sexual Assault in Schools website to support these efforts:
Ten Things You Can Do When a Title IX Complaint Fails
Parents: You Can Become the Agent of Change for Title IX Policies
How to Gather Information About a School District’s Title IX Policies
Investigating What Happens When a Student Reports Sexual Harassment