On July 10, the Department of Education launched a new national initiative aimed at protecting K-12 students from sexual misconduct by adults in schools, backed by a Dear Colleague Letter reminding every district of its obligations under Title IX related to staff and professional boundaries. It doesn't create new law. It does signal that the feds are watching how districts actually execute the process they already have — and that makes this year's Title IX training more than a box to check.
Our on-demand Title IX training for 2026-27 went live July 15. Here's why each piece of it matters more than you might think.
New administrators (required): "I already did Title IX training at my last district" doesn't cover you here. The regulations require training on the scope of your district's education program and your district's policy — not a generic overview of Title IX. A new administrator - even if you’re coming from a district that has an identical policy on paper - has to be trained again on school-specific response processes, coordinators, and the like. Different job title, same rule: you need current training on your district's Title IX policy, in both the "skinny" and "full" versions, before you're the one fielding a report. Run time for “full” districts is a little over three hours; run time for “skinny” districts is about 40 minutes.
Returning administrators in Districts with the full Title IX Policy: (required): First the bad news: The 2020 regulations require that all members of the Title IX team be trained on “current law and regulation.” The FBI's crime reporting definitions that your Title IX policy incorporates were updated, which will shift how conduct gets classified under your policy. And you also need to review the substance of the July 10 Dear Colleague letter. Now the good news: our training for returning administrators in a full policy district only runs for around 30 minutes.
Returning administrators in Districts with the “skinny” Title IX Policy: (recommended, not required — but read this before you skip it): Even if your Board elected to adopt KSB’s "skinny" version of a Title IX policy, the policy doesn’t train itself and it is not self-executing. The Department's July 10 Dear Colleague Letter is a reminder that having a compliant policy on paper and having a team that can run it correctly under pressure are two different things.
All staff (required for new staff, recommended for everyone, and we mean everyone): Here's the piece administrators sometimes underweigh: a report of sexual harassment to any employee of a K-12 school creates actual knowledge for the district. That means a volunteer coach, a cafeteria worker, a paraprofessional, or the president of your school board can each individually trigger your district's legal duty to respond, whether or not they know what to do with what they just heard. Failing to report Title IX-covered misconduct is one of the biggest legal exposures a school can carry, and that exposure doesn't discriminate by job title or tenure. Every person on your payroll — and some who aren't — can put your district on the clock.
Prefer a live person in the room? We'll run all of this at your back-to-school inservice. Dates are booking fast — email Shari at shari@ksbschoollaw.com to grab one before they're gone.