October 2, 2018

On Friday, the Chicago Tribune reported that the Department of Education will be withholding millions of dollars in federal grant money from Chicago Public Schools. A letter explaining the suspension of funds cites “serious and pervasive violations under Title IX”, the federal law intended to protect students from gender-based discrimination, including sexual abuse and harassment. We agree with the Department’s analysis – CPS has a history of severe, systemic failures – but their response is flawed and counter-productive.

As an organization with attorneys who represent CPS and local college students who have experienced sexual violation, we have brought many Title IX complaints to the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) within the Department of Education.  Unfortunately, the Department rarely upholds the promise of Title IX. In fact, this is the first time in our collective memory that OCR has instituted any meaningful consequences to a Chicagoland institution.

While we are encouraged that the Department of Education has finally acknowledged how systemic failures to deal with sexual violation is a serious problem, withholding money from CPS will NOT produce the cultural and systematic change that is needed. Rather, CPS needs more resources for investigating and processing Title IX cases, for supporting and accommodating survivors, and for preventing sexual abuse in the first place. We worry that this extraordinarily rare step by the Department of Education is simply misdirection designed to distract attention from the coming release of proposed changes to Title IX regulations: it has been widely reported that the Trump Administration supports weakening Title IX to such a degree that neither of the cases outlined in the Tribune article would merit a school investigation.

When government institutions falter in performing their duties, oversight may be the best response. In Chicago, there’s certainly precedent for it. Two years ago, on the eve of the Trump administration taking over, the Department of Justice found widespread systemic failures in the Chicago Police Department. When the federal government chose not to pursue CPD accountability for that report, Illinois’ Attorney General led the CPD into negotiations resulting in a consent decree that promises to bring needed change to Chicago. Similarly, after CPS was found to have failed its students with disabilities, the state required it to submit to an independent monitor.

CPS’s failure to protect students from sexual harm and to respond appropriately also merits an independent monitor. Maggie Hickey’s preliminary report on how CPS can improve on these issues is helpful, but there is no guarantee CPS will meaningfully implement any of the suggestions she outlined. We also appreciate many of the bills introduced in the General Assembly in the wake of the Tribune’s “Betrayed” series, but broader, more sweeping changes are needed. Let’s put the momentum of these revelations to good use!

We can start by closely monitoring CPS, a move likely to help bring it into good standing – but these issues exist in districts across Illinois. So, let’s codify current Title IX protections for K-12 students into state law because safeguards against discrimination in education shouldn’t depend on who is in the oval office. Additionally, we should give survivors an individual remedy for pursuing school accountability because (as their failures have proven) students cannot rely on the Attorney General or the Department of Education to enforce their rights.

We’ll be lobbying our legislators in the next session in hopes of advancing these solutions. We hope you will join us.