Now that you know more about Title IX, you may know of a situation at your school that falls under these regulations. If you believe that your school is in violation of Title IX, you have several options for how to proceed. First, you may want to consult an attorney or your regional office of the Office for Civil Rights to confirm your understanding of the requirements under Title IX.
If you think the situation at your school isn't fair, it's probably a good idea to find others who agree with you. Your school isn't supposed to retaliate against you if you file a complaint but it may be easier to make change happen with a whole group. A single individual may find it difficult to get the attention of the institution. It's also easier for the school to pressure a single individual to drop any complaints. On the other hand, a group of people complaining about the same situation will more likely be heard.
Sources for supporters include athletes, coaches, parents of athletes, administrators, other students, women's groups (especially those on campus) and alumni. Remember that coaches and administrators have to worry about their jobs: they may not feel comfortable in taking an active role and risk appearing to their employers to be a troublemaker. Sympathetic coaches or administrators may be able to supply some of the information needed to see if the overall athletic program is in compliance with Title IX or not.
Information is important. Since Title IX covers the entire program, the experience of an athlete on a single team may not reflect the overall situation. There may be male athletes who have just as bad a situation as the female athletes. That's why the more information you can gather the better. Find the answers to as many of the questions outlined in this guide as possible. That's another reason why a group may be more effective than an individual: the additional people may have more sources of information.
Each educational institution that receives federal funds is required to designate a Title IX officer. Ask your school who the Title IX officer is. You or someone from your group may wish to review some of this information with them. The school or school district must also have their own internal Title IX complaint procedure: you can use these systems or you can file a complaint directly with the Office for Civil Rights, as outlined below; or proceed to court to institute a Title IX lawsuit.
If, once you've gathered as much information as you can, you believe the school is in violation of Title IX, you must then decide how to proceed. Here are a few options:
- Contact your institution's designated Title IX officer and present the situation. That officer may decide to bring the situation to the institution's attention.
- Ask a sympathetic member of an athletic council, a faculty member for example, to present the information to that group, noting that this situation puts the institution into legal danger. For high schools, present the information to the PTA and the school board.
- Outline Title IX requirements for the athletic department, noting where you believe the school may be at risk of violating the law. Note ways in which the department can make changes to come into compliance, such as a list of requests from the female athletes.
- Document that these requests have been made.
- Suggest to the athletic department that they request technical assistance from the OCR to determine if they are in compliance with Title IX.
- Find out about your school's grievance procedure and consider filing a complaint through that avenue.
- File an administrative complaint with the Office for Civil Rights.
Seek legal representation and consider filing a lawsuit.
Note that these options are not mutually exclusive. You may, for example, want to hold off on filing a complaint or a lawsuit while presenting the institution with the information you have. The athletic department may decide to make changes based on your requests. On the other hand, if your requests are refused, you may then want to file a complaint or lawsuit. Once you file a complaint or a lawsuit, however, the first five options generally don't apply.
The more allies you can find the better. Large donors, alumni, the school president -- any of these people may have particular ties to women's sports. Letter writing campaigns by alumni, publicity in school or local newspapers or alumni magazines are all tools that you can use to put pressure on the institution to listen to your requests.
The Women's Sports Foundation may also be able to help. Contact the WSF Advocacy Department at 1-800-227-3988 for more information.
Complaint vs. LawsuitA complaint to the Office for Civil Rights is not a lawsuit. It is an administrative complaint that can be filed by anyone: a parent, an athlete, a team, or even a total stranger. All that is required is a letter to the OCR. That letter must be signed, contain the name and address of the complainant, describe the person or group injured by the alleged discrimination, identify the institution that is alleged to have discriminated, describe the alleged discrimination and provide information about when the discrimination occurred. The complaint should be filed with one of the ten regional offices. (See link to Regional OCR offices, below.) Although the complaints must be signed, the complainant can request confidentiality.
In cases of specific discrimination, the complaint must be filed within 180 days of the discrimination taking place. If a school's internal grievance procedure is followed, the complaint must be filed within 60 days of the last action of that procedure. Complaints about ongoing discrimination can take place at any time.80
Within 15 calendar days of receipt of a complaint, the OCR must notify the institution involved.81 It will determine if the school is covered by Title IX and then assign an investigator or investigative team. The school will be asked to submit certain information. The investigator may visit the school and ask the questions that were covered earlier in this guide. The OCR will then decide if the school is or is not in compliance with Title IX. If they find there is discrimination, they will work with the school to come up with a plan to come into compliance.
If you are not satisfied with the result of your complaint, you can appeal the results. Unfortunately, the appeal usually goes to the office that did the investigation in the first place. Historically, such appeals have not been effective without substantial new information.
In past OCR investigations, school attorneys have been present at times while the OCR investigator is interviewing coaches or athletes. The presence of a school official can have a chilling effect on the information provided by employees or students. Some of the information asked for is subjective and answers may be shaded if the individual interviewed does not wish to appear disloyal. For example, a coach whose team's equipment is marginal may say that it is satisfactory when a school attorney is present but may call it less than satisfactory on another occasion. You may wish to let coaches and athletes know that a school official may be present so they are not surprised. If an attorney is working with you on the complaint, they may also request to be present during interviews as well.
A lawsuit is different: it is filed in a court of law. You need an attorney to file a lawsuit. Witnesses will be sworn to tell the truth. It can be costly, though some attorneys will accept cases on a pro bono basis, in other words, you won't have to pay attorneys' fees although you may have to pay filing costs or other fees. (See Appendix B for possible legal resources.) If you win a Title IX case, the court may make the losing side pay your attorney's fees.
As a result of the 1992 Supreme Court ruling in
Franklin v. Gwinnett County, you may also be able to receive a monetary damages award if intentional sex discrimination is proved. That means the school would not only have to stop discriminating, it might also have to pay the victim(s) of that discrimination. Athletes at Auburn University and others have been successful in gaining damages that awarded small amounts to the individual athletes in addition to their legal fees.
A lawsuit must be filed by someone who is directly affected by the discrimination: an academic advisor can't file, for example. However, there are no specific time limitations on coming to a final judgement and cases have stretched over years before they were decided.
A lawsuit can provide immediate relief in one way that an OCR complaint cannot. An attorney can go to court and ask for a temporary restraining order, which can stop an athletic department from carrying out such plans as cutting a team. Consult an attorney for more information about whether or not this type of action might be applicable to your situation.
Lawsuits have been very effective in some cases. As noted in earlier sections, there may be situations that are difficult to prove discrimination under Title IX. Yet a court of law may find that there was discrimination when the situation is considered both under Title IX and other state or federal laws. Consult an attorney about your specific situation.