Despite announcing significant and controversial changes to Title IX, which are meant to go into effect on August 1, the Biden administration has been silent on the final rule’s release date. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona denies that the delay has anything to do with the upcoming election, reports K-12 Dive:
“U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona denied claims on Thursday that the long-awaited Title IX athletics final rule is being delayed because of the presidential election.
“Rather, he said, it’s because the department wanted to release the broader Title IX rule as soon as possible for schools that were awaiting its release, and to protect victims of sexual violence, while officials worked their way through comments on the proposed athletics rule.
“’The Title IX [athletics] proposal was submitted nine months later. It would have been great to put them together. But the reality is we would have had to delay the other one to get through this one,’ he said during the Education Writers Association’s National Seminar in Las Vegas last week. ‘It’s not because of the election.’
“The department has been silent on the final rule’s release date after delaying its release multiple times in the past year. However, it has repeatedly said the athletics rule’s delay is due to the high volume of feedback received during the public comment period. The agency has yet to send the rule to the Office of Management and Budget for review. That step, required by federal regulatory procedure,can take up to 120 days before regulations are published in the Federal Register.
“’We’re working aggressively on that,’ said Cardona on Thursday, highlighting that the rule received over 150,000 public comments. ‘But there’s no update today, when it’s going to be released.’
“Cardona’s comments contradict a report in The Washington Post last March that putting off the athletics rule was a political strategy.”
To read the entire K-12 Dive article, click HERE.