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Subcommittee delays Title IX rewrite amid federal-state questions; recommends memo and sends discrimination timeline changes to board
Summary
The Darien policy subcommittee on March 18 deferred a proposed Title IX rewrite and asked outside counsel for a memo to clarify conflicts between federal guidance and Connecticut law, while recommending edits to the district’s discrimination-appeal timelines.
The Darien Board of Education policy subcommittee on March 18 deferred action on a proposed Title IX rewrite and asked for legal guidance from its outside counsel, Shipman & Goodwin, citing unresolved conflicts between recent federal actions and Connecticut law.
Staff told the subcommittee that the Department of Education’s 2024 final Title IX rule had been held invalid by a district court in Kentucky and that the Office for Civil Rights later clarified the rule’s applicability. The materials presented to the subcommittee reflect the 2020 Title IX guidance, which yields a narrower definition of harassment and requires a bifurcated investigation process with separate investigators and decision makers. Members said those procedural requirements had practical and budgetary implications, including the district’s need to hire investigators to meet the procedures.
The core area of disagreement is the definition of protected classes. Subcommittee members noted that Connecticut law defines protected categories more broadly than the current federal guidance in some respects — specifically, Connecticut includes gender identity and gender expression — and that adopting state definitions where they conflict with federal guidance could place the district in a legal quandary. Members requested a clear written memo or comparative grid from Shipman & Goodwin laying out which provisions conflict, which provisions the district is required to follow now, and the potential consequences of adopting the state standard where it diverges from federal guidance.
On a related nondiscrimination policy, the subcommittee reviewed proposed edits to make appeal timelines more permissive for parents. The revised discrimination policy would give parents more time to submit appeal paperwork and would require the superintendent or designee to render a decision within 30 days after paperwork is filed. The draft also incorporates Connecticut-specific prohibitions on epithets based on gender identity and gender expression to comply with state law, the staff summary said.
Subcommittee members agreed to send the Title IX materials and the discrimination-policy edits to the full board for review and to request a legal memo from Shipman & Goodwin to clarify state-federal conflicts. The subcommittee did not adopt final language on Title IX at the subcommittee level and did not take a formal recorded roll-call vote during its meeting.
