(Excerpts from Higher Ed Dive)

• The U.S. Department of Education is once again pushing back the release of its highly awaited regulatory proposal on Title IX and now plans to publish it in June.
• Postponing the intended timeline for the draft rule runs against the wishes of advocates for sexual assault prevention, some of whom had calledfor the Education Department to publish it by the beginning of October 2021. 
• In other circles, the prospect of a new regulation is highly unpopular. More than two dozen organizations, led by conservative advocacy group Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies, last month urged the departmentto abandon efforts to rewrite the current rule, which took effect August 2020 under former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
• The DeVos-era rule sets up a tribunal for colleges to evaluate sexual assault cases. They call for an accused student and an accuser to be able to question each other through an adviser.
• The groups wrote in a letter that the DeVos regulation preserves due process rights, something civil liberties advocates said previous federal Title IX guidance lacked.
• The coalition in its letter also raised concerns that a new rule reportedly will protectgay and transgender students from sex-based discrimination under Title IX. The groups wrote that allowing transgender women to participate in sports aligned with their gender identity would “wreak havoc on Title IX’s requirement to establish and maintain a level playing field” for female athletes.
• The Education Department’s publication of a draft rule in the Federal Register will trigger a public comment period, typically 60 days. Once the department reviews this feedback, it will finalize a regulation.