23 Jul Department of Education resolutions fall to a new low
Early this year, we shared the unsettling news that the Department of Education (“ED”) reached a record low for Title IX case resolutions in the first year of President Trump’s second term. Our research found that while thousands of students and former students languished with their Title IX complaints in limbo, ED’s Office for Civil Rights did not resolve any sexual harassment, sexual violence, or pregnancy discrimination cases. Despite the Secretary of Education’s recent claims that the administration is mounting a “full-on attack” to resolve the extreme backlog of cases, we have found that the failure to bring justice for student complaints has only worsened this year.
In the first half of 2026, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights only reached seven resolutions in Title IX cases—less than half of last year’s historically low resolution rate. As in last year, this year’s Title IX resolutions thus far did not offer relief for any students bringing complaints of sexual violence, sexual harassment, or gender harassment. And, particularly relevant to the students we serve, the Office reached no resolutions related to pregnancy or parental status discrimination this year either.
Of the seven complaints resolved in the first half of 2026, all but one addressed promoting or administering scholarships or programs that appeared to be sex-specific or sex-preferred. For example, one college was investigated for posting two scholarships on its webpage, including a “Working Mothers Scholarship.” Another was investigated for promoting scholarships such as a “Women Veterans Memorial Scholarship.” As a result of the investigations, the colleges removed the scholarship posts. Three of the seven resolved complaints involved another college, which allegedly posted and sponsored programs that may have preferred women, such as a “BOLD Women’s Leadership Network,” and a “Women in International Security Club.” Of the six complaints dealing with promoting or administering sex-specific or sex-preferred scholarships or programs, just one benefited men: a nursing scholarship designed to encourage men to enter nursing—a field in which men have long been severely underrepresented.
Finally, a university was investigated for failing to make its Title IX training materials publicly available, and for hosting a grievance process that did not provide for a live hearing. ED continues its efforts to dismantle college and university policies inclusive of transgender students—an issue we flagged in our early 2026 report—yet reached no resolutions on the issue in the first half of this year.
These limited case resolutions reveal a disturbing trend of the Office penalizing educational institutions for their work to support women students, while simultaneously failing to investigate the thousands of complaints brought by women students regarding discriminatory treatment and gender-based violence. Students navigating pregnancy or parenthood are among those left without recourse—with no resolutions in this administration’s first year, and none so far this year either. With the ongoing dismantling of ED and no meaningful federal enforcement in sight, we continue to urge states to take all actions possible to ensure that non-discrimination laws are enforced at the state level.
