Trump Title IX Rule Returns: What Changes for Students

The Trump Title IX rule is officially back on the books. On September 28, the U.S. Department of Education announced it is rescinding the Biden administration's 2024 Title IX regulations and reinstating the framework written under Education Secretary Betsy DeVos during Donald Trump's first term. The move, announced by Secretary Linda McMahon, strips the Biden rules from the Code of Federal Regulations after a federal judge vacated them nationwide in 2025 and courts dismissed the last appeals this summer.

McMahon called the move common sense, saying in a statement that the published regulations "faithfully reflect court orders and Congressional intent." She pledged to hold accountable any school that violates "the rights, privacy, or athletic opportunities of our women and girls." According to Chalkbeat, the restored Trump Title IX rule cements the approach schools take when investigating campus sexual assault and harassment, and clears the way for removing federal civil rights protections from LGBTQ students.

What the restored rules actually require

Under the restored Trump Title IX rule, schools face a narrower definition of sexual harassment and must notify anyone accused of a policy violation of the allegations lodged against them. Colleges must hold live hearings with cross-examination in certain cases, and the rules set minimum wait times before hearings that can stretch out resolutions. Kayleigh Baker, a consultant with TNG Consulting and a member of the Association of Title IX Administrators' advisory board, told Chalkbeat the wait times can significantly lengthen cases, particularly at the K-12 level. Baker added that schools have already been operating under these expectations since the administration's early days, so Monday's announcement mainly brings the official record in line with reality.

Why advocates say survivors will report less

Survivor advocates reacted with alarm. Shiwali Patel, senior director of education justice for the National Women's Law Center, said the framework "creates less safe campuses" and "removes obligations for educational institutions to respond to sexual harassment." Fewer survivors want to report, she said, because they view the rules as not intended to protect them. Maha Ibrahim, director of gender-based violence law programs at Equal Rights Advocates, warned the move could force "an entire additional generation of students to live under these anti-survivor and what we believe are very quite harmful and really anti-Title IX regulations."

The announcement landed a day after New York prosecutors reopened a criminal investigation into an alleged gang rape of a former student involving seven fraternity brothers at Cornell University. The university handled the case through a Title IX process, but a lawsuit alleges most of the accused students received weak sanctions. Patel told Chalkbeat that the Cornell case raises more questions about a process survivors already describe as traumatic and unfair.

Transgender students face the sharpest hit

The rescinded rules had stated that gender identity is covered by Title IX, a reading cheered by LGBTQ students and their supporters. The restored regulations do not define sex but treat it as a binary, and the department has signaled it wants Title IX's definition of sex to "refer exclusively to an individual's immutable biological classification as either male or female." Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement: "We know who will be hurt: women, girls, and others who are vulnerable to sexual harassment, assault and abuse, including LGBTQ+ students."

The shift follows a Supreme Court ruling this summer that states can bar transgender students from women's and girls' sports, with Justice Brett Kavanaugh writing that in that context the plain meaning of "sex" in Title IX "cannot plausibly be interpreted to refer to anything other than biological sex." Lambda Legal, which opposes the rules' return, noted the department made the change without a public comment period, as Bloomberg Government reported, denying students and families a say in how they will be treated. Kei Williams, executive director of the NEW Pride Agenda, wrote that students are already afraid to report harassment or ask for help, and "this would exacerbate those fears."

Supporters call it due process

Supporters of the restored Trump Title IX rule frame it as a restoration of fairness. Sarah Parshall Perry, vice president of Defending Education and a former senior counsel in the department's Office for Civil Rights who helped develop the rules, said the process protects "both men and women." The department heard from students accused of misconduct, often young men, who were not given enough opportunities to dispute the allegations against them, she said. "What it really does is make sure that these allegations are taken with the seriousness and gravity that they demand," Perry added.

Perry also expects the fight over the Trump Title IX rule to continue. She called the past decade and a half of Title IX regulation "regulatory ping-pong," noting administrations have gone back and forth for the better part of 16 years, and said the only way to end the whiplash is for Congress to define sex under the law, a politically fraught step with little traction on Capitol Hill.