Policy subcommittee to refer Title IX, civil-rights procedure updates to full committee

The Fall River Public Schools policy subcommittee voted Nov. 3 to refer proposed updates to the district's Title IX harassment grievance procedure and to the civil-rights grievance policy to the full school committee for consideration.

District staff told the subcommittee the edits are primarily technical changes required after federal Title IX rules reverted to earlier (2020) definitions. "We're essentially updating some minor parts of our procedures to make sure that they're in line with the current federal Title IX regulations," the district's Title IX coordinator said, noting that the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting terminology changed as well.

Why it matters: the proposed Title IX revisions remove sexual orientation and gender identity from Title IX grievance language because the current federal definition no longer lists those categories under Title IX; the district will add those categories explicitly…