Education Department Rescinds Biden-Era Title IX Rewrite, Restores 2020 Rule

The U.S. Department of Education formally rescinded the Biden administration's 2024 Title IX regulations on Monday and reinstated the 2020 rules issued during President Donald Trump's first term, closing a years-long legal fight over how federally funded schools handle accusations of sex discrimination.

The reinstated regulation is scheduled to appear in the Federal Register on Sept. 29 and takes effect immediately, with no new notice-and-comment period. Education Secretary Linda McMahon described the action as a full return to Title IX as it was enforced before the Biden rewrite, and the department said the rule restores the commonsense language first put in place under Trump.

The practical effect is clarity. Schools, families, and students now have one clearly identified set of rules in the federal code instead of a vacated regulation that federal courts had already struck down.

A Rule the Courts Had Already Thrown Out

Title IX is the landmark 1972 federal law that bars sex discrimination in any school or education program receiving federal money. For more than five decades it has shaped everything from athletic opportunities for girls to how campuses respond to reports of sexual harassment.

The 2024 regulation had stretched the law's ban on sex discrimination to cover discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It was briefly in force in some states and school districts but never took hold nationally, because legal challenges tied it up almost from the moment it was published.

A federal district judge struck the rule down for good in the closing days of President Joe Biden's term. A second judge issued a similar ruling within weeks of Trump taking office. All told, courts enjoined or vacated the 2024 rule at least 11 times.

The department had already returned to enforcing the 2020 standard on Jan. 31, 2025. A fact sheet released with Monday's announcement made the point plainly: nothing changes in practice for individual students, parents, and teachers, because the rules finalized this week are the rules the department has been applying for more than a year.

What changes is the record. Removing the 2024 rules from the Code of Federal Regulations means schools, students, and families can easily identify the Title IX regulations that are actually in effect -- an outcome the department calls a win for transparency and for local decision-making.

Due Process Returns to Campus Hearings

The 2020 rules are best known for strengthening due-process protections for students accused of sexual harassment, a question that matters most at the college level, where campuses run their own disciplinary proceedings and can impose life-altering sanctions.

That framework required schools to give accused students a meaningful chance to respond to the evidence against them, including the opportunity to question the other side through an adviser during live hearings. It also spelled out when schools must respond to reports, how they must investigate, and what support they must offer to the students who bring complaints.

The Biden regulation had pushed institutions to broaden the definition of harassment and to reduce procedural safeguards for the accused. The restored 2020 standard returns a measure of balance to a process that determines reputations, scholarships, and futures.

Supporters of the change say that balance is the entire point. Sarah Parshall Perry, vice president of the legal group Defending Education, called the move a long-awaited and much-needed regulatory step. She argued it is especially consequential for Democratic-led states that claimed legal cover for gender-inclusive policies because the Biden regulation stayed in the Federal Register even after courts had repeatedly blocked it.

The department paired the announcement with a review of its own enforcement record, pointing to investigations and actions against states and school districts whose policies it considers violations of Title IX. Officials have argued that the law requires schools to keep transgender athletes out of girls' and women's teams, a position the 2020 standard did not spell out and that a broader rulemaking is expected to address directly.

Critics Escalate as a Campus Case Turns Criminal

Opponents attacked the decision within hours. The National Women's Law Center warned that the department's action significantly weakens protections against sexual harassment in education. Civil rights organizations and some Democratic state officials said they would keep pressing the issue in court and in state legislatures.

The law center pointed to a case that has dominated national headlines: a reopened criminal investigation into an alleged fraternity assault at Cornell University. A New York prosecutor restarted that inquiry after a civil lawsuit and a wave of public outrage over how the original allegations were handled. Shiwali Patel, the law center's senior director of education justice, called it a devastating example of why federal enforcement matters.

Administration allies see the same episode differently. They argue that the answer to serious allegations is a fair process that reaches reliable conclusions, not a lower standard of proof that can damage students' lives on thin evidence. In that view, the 2020 rules protect accusers and the accused alike by insisting that schools follow clear, consistent procedures.

Both sides agree on one thing: the stakes are high, and the fight is not over.

What Comes Next

Monday's action is not the final word. The department is preparing a more comprehensive rule, listed on the federal regulatory agenda as RIN 1870-AA23, that would state explicitly that Title IX's protections do not extend to discrimination based on gender identity.

That proposal tracks the executive order Trump signed in January 2025, titled Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government. Unlike this week's technical fix, the broader rule will move through the full notice-and-comment process, giving states, schools, and families a formal chance to weigh in before it is finalized.

The durable consequence of Monday's move is that the 2020 standard is now the regulation on the books. Any future administration that wants to change it will have to run the same regulatory gauntlet -- proposing a new rule, collecting public comment, and defending it in court -- instead of leaning on an interpretation that judges had already rejected.

For schools, the department's message is straightforward: follow the rules that have been in force since early 2025 and expect continued scrutiny of policies that fall short. The next milestones to watch are the proposed gender-identity rule, the public comment period that follows, and the legal challenges certain to come with it.