Education Dept. Issues New Guidance for Sexual-Assault Investigations

The Chronicle of Higher Education April 4, 2011 By Lauren Sieben Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Education Secretary Arne Duncan will announce today a set of thorough guidelines for how schools and colleges should respond to allegations of sexual assault. Among them are that institutions should consider such allegations under the "more likely than not" standard of evidence, rather than the stricter "clear and convincing" standard that some now use. The guidance comes in the form of a "Dear Colleague" letter from the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights designed to clarify existing Title IX regulations. The letter provides a detailed overview of institutions' existing responsibilities under Title IX when dealing with complaints of sexual harassment and sexual violence. http://chronicle.com/article/Education-Dept-Issues-New/127004/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en For a copy of the OCR "Dear Colleague" Letter, click here: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201104.pdf OCR Fact Sheet on Sexual Violence: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/dcl-factsheet-201104.html