California bill likely conflicts with new Title IX regulation

Education Dive

Jeremy Bauer-Wolf

August 20, 2020

Dive Brief:

• A California bill working through the state’s legislature likely conflicts with aspects of the new federal regulation governing campus sexual violence.

• The proposed legislation would prohibit a victim and an accused party to directly cross-examine each other, which the federal rule says colleges must allow, through a surrogate. The bill would also give California campus officials leeway to decide if a hearing is necessary, while the regulation requires that colleges hold them to determine if sexual misconduct occurred.

• Critics of the rule have derided it for undoing key protections for sexual assault survivors created under the Obama administration. It’s already the subject of lawsuits and California’s bill sets up more possible legal challenges, Title IX experts say.

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