Lozano Smith’s Title IX Practice Area is comprised of specialists dedicated to the pressing issues faced by K-12 school districts, community college districts and higher education institutions. From athletics to sexual violence, this team advises, trains, and educates clients on the various components of Title IX – from prevention and mitigation to investigations resulting in disciplinary action.

Attorneys in the Title IX Practice Area collaborate with multiple practice groups, including student, labor and employment, investigations and special education. Our team focuses its efforts on streamlining the advice and counsel that is provided to clients on Title IX-related issues. Areas in which the group provides advice and training include:

  • Athletics, including audits of athletic programs
  • Sex-based discrimination of students and employees
  • Pregnant and parenting students
  • Single-sex education
  • Issues relating to transgender employees and students
  • Developing and auditing complaint grievance procedures and policies
  • Responding to reports of sexual misconduct and harassment
  • Investigating complaints of sexual misconduct and harassment
  • Title IX Coordinator roles and responsibilities
  • District and employee liability
  • Reporting obligations
  • Interaction with law enforcement agencies
  • Discipline of employees and students
  • Litigation
  • VAWA/Clery Act
  • Trainings

Commitment to Craft

Members of the Title IX Practice Area continually improve their craft through trainings with other investigators and associations, and many are trained and certified by:

  • Association of Title IX Administrators (ATIXA)
  • Association of Workplace Investigators (AWI)
  • Trauma-Informed Training and Practices

Preventive Measures and Education

Through onsite trainings, our team proactively works with educational institutions to spot issues and trends, strengthen processes and protocols. We help build skills within your staff, and expand knowledge for identifying issues and addressing misconduct when it occurs.

Our clients find that in many cases this helps to save costs in the long run.

Lozano Smith has partnered with several leading associations to help equip leaders on best practices in addressing Title IX-related matters, including the Association of Chief Human Resources Offices (ACHRO), Association of California School Administrators (ACSA), and Small School Districts Association (SSDA).

Representative workshops include

  • Building for the Future, Now: Best Practices in Conducting Title IX Investigations
  • Best practices and responsibilities for administrators
  • Title IX Investigations: how to conduct an investigation
  • Reporting duties for teachers under Title IX
  • Title IX and state-afforded rights for transgender students
  • Non-binary employees in the workplace
  • AB 1805: Mandated Sexual Harassment Training

Ninth Circuit Confirms Title IX Protections for Perceived Sexual Orientation

By:Sloan Simmons, Sarah Fama -

August 2023Number 29The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently held that Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 prohibits discrimination on the basis of perceived sexual orientation. BackgroundIn Grabowski v. Arizona Board of Regents (9th Cir. June 13, 2023) Case No. 22-15714, Michael Grabowski alleged that while he was a “first-year student-athlete, his teammates subjected him to frequent ‘sexual and homophobic bullying’ because they perceived h...

Department of Education Releases Proposed Title IX Rule for Transgender Athletes

By:Roxana Khan, Monica Batanero, Emma Sol -

On April 6, 2023, the United States Department of Education (Department) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, specifically focusing on sex-related eligibility for athletic teams.  This proposed rule would apply to all public school institutions that receive federal funding, including community colleges and public K-12 schools.  Full text of the proposed rule can be found here: https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/doc...

NCAA Requires Member Schools to Collect Discipline Records from Athlete's Prior Schools

By:Carolyn Gemma, Emma Sol -

April 2023Number 16At the beginning of the 2022-23 school year, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Board of Governors’ Policy on Campus Sexual Violence (Policy) went into effect.  This Policy requires NCAA member schools to collect disciplinary information from K-12 school districts, community colleges, and other post-secondary institutions, previously attended by their incoming and continuing classes of student athletes.More specifically, NCAA member schools are r...

New OCR Guidance Regarding Title IX and Pregnancy

By:Sloan Simmons, Sarah Fama -

December 2022Number 58On the heels of the United States Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022) ___U.S.___ [142 S.Ct. 2228] (overturning various abortion rights precedents) and the recently proposed changes to the regulations under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX), the U.S. Department of Education (Department) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has released a new resource regarding the intersection of Title IX and pregnancy.  ...

U.S. Department of Education Releases Proposed New Title IX Regulations

By:Michelle Cannon, Sarah Fama, Emma Sol -

July 2022Number 32On June 23, 2022, the United States Department of Education (Department) released its long-awaited Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 for public review.  The 701-page document (published here) outlines the Department’s proposed new Title IX regulations.  Four of the major changes in the proposed regulations are highlighted below.While the proposed regulations are currently available for review, they are still ...

50th Anniversary of Title IX

By:Ruth Mendyk, Sarah Fama, Emma Sol -

June 2022Number 27June 23, 2022, marks the 50th Anniversary of Title IX. On June 23, 1972, President Richard Nixon signed Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 into law, prohibiting federally funded educational institutions from discriminating against students or employees based on sex. In its entirety, Title IX states:“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits from, or be subject to discrimination under ...

Emotional Distress Damages Unavailable in Section 504 Actions

By:Jennifer Baldassari, Amanda Cordova -

May 2022Number 20On April 28, 2022, the United States Supreme Court narrowed the scope of damages available under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504), ruling that emotional distress damages are not recoverable in private actions to enforce Section 504 and other similar Spending Clause antidiscrimination statutes, including the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Title VI, and Title IX.BackgroundPlaintiff Jane Cummings is deaf, legally blind, and communicates primarily in Americ...