While courts across the country issue injunctions and debate the politics and definitions surrounding the 2024 Title IX regulations, the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) continues to consider “classic” gender inequities in schools.
On August 8, 2024, the OCR announced a resolution of its Title IX investigation into the Minneapolis Public School District’s high school athletics programs. As part of the voluntary agreement, the district committed to:
• Conducting a full assessment of how the district can accommodate athletic interest and abilities to provide equal opportunities for female students;
• Develop a plan to increase participation opportunities for female students;
• Create a Stakeholder Committee to work collaboratively with the district to create new policies and procedures addressing interscholastic athletics programs;
• Assess and develop a plan with respect to the provision of locker rooms, practice, and competitive facilities at each high school in the district that equally and effectively accommodates the athletic interests and abilities of all students; and
• Training its Title IX coordinators, athletic directors, principals, and coaches on their responsibilities under Title IX.
The OCR’s investigation revealed a disparity between the female enrollment rate and their participation in interscholastic athletics. Despite this disparity, the district acknowledged that they had not completed a student athletic interest survey in over a decade, nor did they have any policies or criteria for the addition of sports or levels to their existing programs.
The investigation also revealed significant disparities between the existing athletic facilities, and student access to said facilities, between male and female students. For example, many of the softball fields used by the district were not up to regulation for high school fast pitch and they lacked permanent fencing around the field. The girls’ softball teams were also regularly displaced from competition because the district allowed a men’s adult softball league to use the facilities after 6 p.m. The OCR also raised concerns that a higher proportion of female athletes had maintenance and preparation responsibilities for their sports, such as setting up nets and fencing prior to practice or games, with some teams even being required to set up spectator seating for their home competitions.
Similar issues were prevalent when comparing locker rooms between male and female students. At least two of the high schools reported that the girls’ locker rooms lacked hot water. Others provided additional locker rooms specifically for male athletes, with no offsetting benefits for female participants, and many female athletes across the district reported that their locker rooms were locked throughout the school day while the boys’ locker rooms were regularly available.
What this means for your district:
Regardless of the status of the 2024 Regulations, Title IX continues to be in effect. Districts cannot ignore their basic obligation to prevent sex discrimination in educational programs and activities. In the context of athletics, this generally means districts must demonstrate that they provide opportunities that are substantially proportionate to their enrollment, or if a gender is currently underrepresented, that they can show program expansion that is responsive to addressing that underrepresentation. Districts should consider regular reviews or internal audits for equity among programs considering schedules, practice and competition facilities, utilities, expectations of participants, displacement of teams, involvement of students, etc. It is clear through this resolution that OCR values a proactive approach to equal opportunity in interscholastic athletics programs.