NWLC and Student Advocacy Groups Demand Department of Education Action on Student ...

NWLC and Student Advocacy Groups Demand Department of Education Action on Student Sexual Violence Complaints Under Title IX

WASHINGTON – Today the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), with nine survivor advocacy organizations, delivered a letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kim Richey, demanding that the Department of Education fulfill its duties under Title IX by investigating and equitably resolving all sexual violence complaints pending at the Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR). The letter was joined by over 100 groups that advocate for survivors of sexual violence.

Student sexual assault survivors who have filed Title IX complaints with OCR have been largely ignored by Assistant Secretary Richey and Education Secretary Linda McMahon. After dismantling much of its enforcement infrastructure last year, OCR resolved zero Title IX complaints of sexual harassment or violence in 2025 and has opened fewer than 10 Title IX sexual violence investigations since March 2025.

“As advocates working to end sexual violence, including in K-12 schools and institutions of higher education, we are deeply concerned by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) neglecting to protect students from actual sexual violence while pursuing an ongoing dangerous and unlawful campaign of discriminating against transgender students under the guise of preventing sexual violence,” the organizations wrote in their letter. “It obscures the ongoing real crisis of sexual violence in schools and brings student survivors who have been waiting years for resolution of their complaints no closer to justice—despite this administration positioning itself as being a true advocate for women and girls’ safety.”

“The shocking statistics coming out of the Department of Education mirror what we are seeing across the federal government under President Trump. Just as Pam Bondi at the Department of Justice is ignoring Epstein survivors, McMahon and Richey are systemically ignoring student sexual violence survivors–all while using the few remaining resources of the gutted Department of Education to attack trans students’ Title IX rights, when these students are already vulnerable to experiencing discrimination and harassment,” said Shiwali Patel, senior director of education justice at NWLC. “The fact that OCR has resolved zero sexual harassment and assault complaints while one in four women experience rape or sexual assault on college campuses proves what we have always known: Trump’s Department of Education is anti-student, anti-survivor, and anti-protecting women and girls.”

The student advocacy and sexual violence prevention organizations that co-led the sign on letter delivered to Secretary McMahon and Assistant Secretary Richey include:

National Women’s Law Center

American Association of University Women

End Rape on Campus

Equal Rights Advocates

It’s On Us

Know Your IX, a project of Advocates for Youth

National Alliance to End Sexual Violence

Stop Sexual Assault in Schools

Victim Rights Law Center

Women’s Law Project