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High School Sports: Many Schools Encouraged Equal Opportunities, but Education Could Further Help Athletics Administrators under Title IX

GAO-18-425
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Office for Civil Rights for the Department of Education The Department of Education's Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights should determine the extent to which Title IX coordinators at the K-12 level are aware of and using the tools recommended in OCR's existing guidance and any barriers preventing their use of this guidance, and use this information in OCR's efforts to encourage them to work with athletics administrators on ensuring equal athletic opportunities. (Recommendation 1)
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In November 2018, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) sent an e-mail to its Regional Directors to inform them of GAO's report, remind them of the importance of coordination between Title IX coordinators and athletics administrators, and encourage them to look for opportunities in their investigations and compliance work to examine the role of Title IX coordinators at the K-12 level. In February 2023, OCR issued a new resource document on Title IX and athletic opportunities in K-12 schools. While OCR officials told us this resource document was widely distributed, they also said they did not gather any information from Title IX coordinators to inform its content or distribution. In April 2023, OCR published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on sex-related eligibility criteria for male and female athletic teams in federally funded education institutions. Officials told us that OCR received over 150,000 public comments in response to the Notice, including some comments asking for training and guidance for Title IX Coordinators. We will consider closing this recommendation when OCR provides documentation showing what the agency learned from comments it received from Title IX Coordinators or athletics administrators at the K-12 level, and what specific steps OCR took to address those comments. As of June 2024, we await information from the agency on its progress.
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