DeVos to make Title IX enforcement announcement

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is expected to make an announcement on the department’s enforcement of federal sex discrimination laws at George Mason University on Thursday. 

The Education Department announced Wednesday that DeVos will give a “major policy address on Title IX enforcement” at the university’s Arlington, Va., campus beginning at 12:15 p.m.

Citing event insiders, BuzzFeed reported earlier this week that DeVos is expected to announce what the Education Department will do regarding Obama-era directives on campus rape.

DeVos signaled in July that changes were coming when she said she wanted to help both victims of assault and those who have been falsely accused of rape, according to a BuzzFeed report.

“We need to get this right, we need to protect all students, and we need to do this quickly,” she reportedly told reporters after meetings with victims.

The day before, Candice Jackson, who heads the department’s civil rights division, inflamed critics when she reportedly told The New York Times that accused students’ rights are often ignored in Title IX cases across the country and that “both parties” involved in a sexual assault case were usually drunk or under the influence of drugs at the time. 

In 2011, the department issued guidance under then-President Barack Obama detailing what is required of schools in preventing and responding to sexual assaults on campuses under the law.

“The Department is deeply concerned about this problem and is committed to ensuring that all students feel safe in their school, so that they have the opportunity to benefit fully from the school’s programs and activities,” the department said in the letter it sent schools.