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 Leaves in Place Idaho Law that Requires K-12 Students to Use Facilities Consistent with their Biological Sex
April 2025Number 14In Roe v. Critchfield (9th Cir. Mar. 20, 2025), Case No. 23-2807, __ F.4th __, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that pro-LGBTQ+ Plaintiffs’ challenge to Idaho Senate Bill 1100 (SB 1100), regarding access to bathrooms and like facilities based upon biological sex, was unlikely to succeed on the merits. As a result, Idaho public schools generally must require K-12 students to use the restrooms and facilities which correspond with their biolo...
President Trump Signs Executive Order Banning Transgender Women from Women’s and Girls’ Sports
February 2025Number 12On February 5, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) entitled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” (EO 14201).In this EO, President Trump aims to ban transgender women from women’s and girls’ sports, relying on the definitions of “male” and “female” from his prior EO, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” (EO 14168). Specific...
Title IX: Impacts of Legal Challenges and Executive Orders
January 2025Number 7On January 9, 2025, in the matter of Tennessee v. Cardona, a federal district court in Kentucky issued an order to vacate the 2024 Title IX Regulations. This set in motion another major shift in the variable history of Title IX.Tennessee v. Cardona (“Cardona”)In Cardona, the crux of the plaintiffs’ (the states of Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Virginia) legal challenge regarding the 2024 Title IX Regulations centered around whether...
Federal Court Vacates 2024 Title IX Regulations Nationwide
January 2025Number 2Thursday, January 9, 2025, a federal district court in Kentucky issued a ruling and judgment in Tennessee vs. Cardona regarding the legality of the United States Department of Education’s (“DOE”) 2024 Title IX regulations (“2024 Title IX Regulations”). This is one of several lawsuits around the country challenging the 2024 Title IX Regulations. The judgment in this case vacates (sets aside) the 2024 Title IX Regulations in full as unlawful on ...
U.S. Department of Education Releases New Title IX Regulations
May 2024Number 22On April 19, 2024, the United States Department of Education (Department) released new and much-anticipated regulations under Title IX (2024 Regulations). Title IX is the federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in federally-funded educational settings, such as school districts and community colleges (referred to as “Recipients”).The 2024 Regulations take effect on August 1, 2024, and will require updates to current Title IX policies for...
Ninth Circuit Confirms Title IX Protections for Perceived Sexual Orientation
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
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...
