Colleges, Universities To Receive Updated Title IX Policy

Letter Reinforces And Clarifies Title IX

The U.S. Education Department "will issue a three-page letter on Title IX on Friday that clarifies and reinforces existing policy," according to a senior Bush administration official cited by Keen & Brady of USA TODAY, who note the action comes after a yearlong review of Title IX. The official said, "We are not going to change the standards for complying with Title IX. The three-prong test will remain intact, and each prong ... will remain a separate and valid way of complying." Keen & Brady note a school passes the requirements by meeting one of three tests — "its athletes are in proportion to males and females enrolled; it shows a history of adding teams for females; it meets the interests and abilities of females on campus." The new clarification letter "reaffirms much of what is laid out in [a '96 Clinton administration] document, particularly about how each of the three tests is a valid way to pass. The new letter makes a point to say that the first test is not a `safe harbor' for schools" (USA TODAY, 7/11). Clinton administration Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights Norma Cantu said, "We kept hearing that the bulk of universities were using prong one (proportionality), but we couldn't find any numbers or studies to support that. The direct experience our office had was a third of the schools used prong one and two thirds used prongs two and three. We're looking at 1993 to the end of 2000" (USA TODAY, 7/11).