The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) today announced that the Paterson Public School District in New Jersey entered into a resolution agreement to remedy violations and concerns OCR found under the Department’s regulations to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, as amended in 2020 as well as under the prior regulations.
OCR found that during school years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022, the district failed to fulfill its Title IX regulatory obligations to offer students supportive measures, notify them that such measures are available with or without the filing of a formal complaint of sexual harassment, and explain how to file a formal complaint when district employees had actual notice of alleged sexual harassment of the students. OCR also determined that during this two-year period, the district violated its recordkeeping obligations regarding reports and complaints of sexual harassment.
With respect to the three school years that predated the 2020 amendments to the Department’s Title IX regulations, OCR found that the district generally did not fulfill its Title IX regulatory requirement to equitably respond to allegations of sexual harassment, including sexual assault, of its students. OCR also found that the district systematically failed to coordinate its response to sexual harassment through its designated Title IX coordinator; failed to notify employees, students, and parents of its Title IX coordinator’s name and contact information; and did not adopt or implement Title IX-compliant grievance procedures for complaints of sex discrimination.
These multiple failures led to the district’s insufficient responses to numerous complaints of sexual harassment, leaving district students vulnerable to the sex discrimination in school that Title IX forbids. OCR further identified a compliance concern related to required district record maintenance during this time period, as well.
The district commitments to resolve this compliance review include:
- Developing a monitoring program to assess the effectiveness of its Title IX efforts and compliance.
- Reviewing prior reports of student-to-student and employee-to-student sexual harassment to determine if further district action is needed to provide an equitable resolution of the incidents.
- Training employees on how to respond to reports and complaints of sex discrimination, including sexual harassment.
- Creating a recordkeeping system for reports, complaints, and investigations of sexual harassment.
- Providing annual age-appropriate training to all students about how to recognize and report sexual harassment and receive supportive measures and remedies.
- Administering annual climate surveys of parents, students, and district employees with respect to sexual harassment in district schools.
- Ensuring the district fulfills its Title IX obligations when law enforcement is involved in responding to sexual harassment of students.
- Ensuring its policies prohibiting sex discrimination and grievance procedures comply with Title IX. And,
- Properly notifying district employees, students, and parents of the district’s Title IX coordinator.
“Paterson Public Schools’ commitments today will ensure that its students now will be able to learn without sexual harassment or discrimination,” said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine E. Lhamon.
The letter of resolution and the resolution agreement are available on OCR’s website.