Which Title IX Rule Applies Right Now
Written by Zachary Gaynor, attorney · The Florida Bar, admitted 2016 · court admissions. Reviewed 2 October 2026.
Reviewed 2 October 2026. This page is dated because the answer changed twice since 2024. In September 2026 the Department locked the current answer in, formally repealing the vacated 2024 rule.
Which Title IX rule is in effect right now?
The 2020 Title IX regulations govern. A federal court vacated the 2024 rule nationwide on 9 January 2025, and the Department of Education confirmed on 4 February 2025 that it enforces only the 2020 rule. And on 29 September 2026 the Department made the reversion official, repealing the vacated rule and recodifying the pre-2024 text in the Code of Federal Regulations. For colleges and universities that means the live hearing and advisor-led cross-examination are federal requirements again, not local choices.
How the law got here
The 2020 regulations took effect on 14 August 2020 and were the first Title IX rules to define sexual harassment and to prescribe a grievance procedure. They are published at 85 Fed. Reg. 30026 and codified at 34 C.F.R. Part 106.
The Department issued a replacement rule on 29 April 2024, nominally effective 1 August 2024. It never took effect nationwide. Federal courts in Kentucky, Louisiana, Kansas and Texas enjoined it in a large number of states before its effective date, and the Supreme Court declined to narrow those injunctions in Department of Education v. Louisiana, 603 U.S. 866 (2024).
On 9 January 2025 the Eastern District of Kentucky vacated the 2024 rule in its entirety, nationwide, in Tennessee v. Cardona, 762 F. Supp. 3d 615 (E.D. Ky. 2025). The court held that the rule exceeded the Department’s statutory authority, violated the First Amendment and the Spending Clause, and was arbitrary and capricious. Vacatur, the court reasoned, simply returned matters to the status quo that had held for more than fifty years.
Update, September 29, 2026: the Department of Education has now made the vacatur formal in the regulation books. A final rule published and effective September 29, 2026 repeals the 2024 text and recodifies the 2020 framework in the Code of Federal Regulations — leaving out the sentence of § 106.45(b)(6)(i), vacated in 2021, that barred reliance on statements of a party who does not submit to cross-examination. Recodification of Title IX Rules, 91 Fed. Reg. 61,308 (Sept. 29, 2026). The practical answer does not change: the 2020 rule governs. For what the recodification changed for students in a hearing, see what the September 2026 Title IX recodification changed.
On 4 February 2025 the Office for Civil Rights issued a Dear Colleague Letter stating that no portion of the 2024 rule is in effect in any jurisdiction and directing enforcement under the 2020 regulations. Federal courts have relied on that letter since, including Carroll Independent School District v. U.S. Department of Education (N.D. Tex. 15 May 2025) and Doe v. Trustees of Columbia University (S.D.N.Y. 31 March 2026).
What the 2020 rule requires of a college or university
These are the provisions that decide most postsecondary cases. Each is a federal requirement, not a courtesy your school extends:
- A live hearing. Postsecondary institutions must hold one, with technology allowing the parties to see and hear each other if they sit in separate rooms. 34 C.F.R. § 106.45(b)(6)(i).
- Cross-examination conducted by advisors. Each party’s advisor asks the other party and the witnesses relevant questions directly. A party may not conduct it personally, and a school that will not supply an advisor for this purpose has to provide one. Same provision.
- A presumption that the respondent is not responsible throughout the process. § 106.45(b)(1)(iv).
- One standard of proof, applied consistently. A school elects either preponderance of the evidence or clear and convincing evidence, and must apply the same standard to every complaint, including complaints against employees. § 106.45(b)(1)(vii).
- A written determination setting out the findings, the rationale and the sanction. § 106.45(b)(7).
- An appeal available to both parties. § 106.45(b)(8).
The school’s obligation to respond begins once it has actual knowledge of sexual harassment in its program or activity, and its response may not be deliberately indifferent. 34 C.F.R. § 106.44(a).
What is expected to change
The Department of Education has placed Title IX on its regulatory agenda, and postsecondary grievance procedures are among the provisions most likely to be rewritten. As of the review date above, no proposed or final rule has been published, so nothing has changed for a case being decided today. Anyone telling you otherwise is describing an agenda item, not a regulation.
Two practical consequences follow. First, check the date on the policy your school published for the current academic year, because institutions have revised their policies repeatedly since 2024 and some still circulate documents written for a rule that no longer exists. Second, a case is governed by the rule in force when the school acted, so the operative question in an older matter is what applied then.
Why this matters to a student’s case
The distinction is not academic. Under the 2024 rule a school could have resolved a complaint through a single investigator with no hearing at all. Under the 2020 rule it cannot. If your school ran a single-investigator process, denied a live hearing, refused to let your advisor question the complainant, or applied clear and convincing evidence to students while applying preponderance to faculty, those are departures from a binding federal regulation.
There is a second and frequently overlooked point. Schools apply their own student conduct code to sexual misconduct that falls outside the federal Title IX definition — conduct off campus, conduct abroad, or conduct the school decides was not severe, pervasive and objectively offensive. Those proceedings often carry none of the protections above, and the first thing worth establishing in any matter is which process the school says it is running.
Common questions
Does the 2024 Title IX rule apply to my case at all?
Not to a case decided now. The vacatur was nationwide and has not been reversed, stayed or successfully appealed. For conduct handled while the rule was briefly in effect in some states during 2024, the analysis is more involved and depends on where the school sits and what was applied at the time.
Can my school still use a single investigator instead of a hearing?
Not for a formal complaint of sexual harassment under Title IX at a college or university. The 2020 rule requires a live hearing. A school may use a single-investigator model for conduct it is handling under its own code rather than under Title IX, which is another reason the characterization of the case matters.
My school says its policy has not changed since 2024. Is that a problem?
It can be. A policy written to implement the 2024 rule may omit the live hearing, cross-examination and presumption the 2020 rule requires. A policy that predates 2024 may be closer to the current requirements than one written in between. The date on the document is worth checking before anything else.
Which standard of proof will my school use?
Whichever it has elected, so long as it applies that standard consistently to students and employees alike. Many institutions use preponderance. A school that applies clear and convincing evidence to complaints against faculty while applying preponderance to students is not complying with the rule.
Does any of this apply to a private university?
Yes. Title IX reaches every institution that receives federal financial assistance, which includes nearly every private college and university through federal student aid. What differs between public and private institutions is the availability of constitutional due-process claims, not the application of Title IX.