Department of Education Publishes List of Active Civil Rights Investigations

Inside Higher Ed

Department of Education Publishes List of Active Civil Rights Investigations

January 18, 2018

The list includes the institution under investigation, its state, the institution type, the type of discrimination complaint and the date the investigation was opened.

Under the Obama administration, the Department of Education published a list of higher education institutions with open Title IX sexual violence investigations. That list was heavily criticized by colleges themselves, who did not like having open investigations highlighted by the department and said it suggested something was amiss even when the feds found no evidence of discrimination.

Last year at a gathering of college attorneys, Candice Jackson, then the acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the department, called it the “list of shame” and indicated that addressing the colleges’ concerns was high on the department’s list of priorities. The department has continued to release the list of active sexual violence investigations at higher ed institutions upon request but not post updates online.

The database published Wednesday includes active sexual violence cases at both colleges and K-12 institutions, among 12 different types of Title IX discrimination investigations.