ERA & Partners Urge Congress to Act on Sexual Violence in Our Schools

October 20. 2026

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For Immediate Release
Oct 20, 2026

Media Contact
Nazirah Ahmad
[email protected]

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ERA joined 127 survivor advocate, civil rights, and education organizations in signing onto a letter urging Congressional oversight to enforce students’ civil rights and protect students from sexual violence in light of the Dept. of Education’s failure to resolve more than one investigation related to student sexual misconduct since the Trump Administration took office for the second time in January, 2025.

The letter reads, in part:

“Congress enacted Title IX in 1972 to ensure that all students can access educational opportunities free from sex discrimination, including sexual violence. This promise requires institutional accountability, trauma-informed processes, and federal investigations and enforcement when schools fail to address sexual violence and support survivors of all races, backgrounds, and genders. But OCR has abandoned this promise.

Since taking office nearly two years ago, the Department of Education under the Trump administration has reached only one Title IX resolution agreement involving sexual violence. In fact, instead of working to prevent and respond to discrimination based on sex—as is its Congressionally directed responsibility—the Department of Education has actively worked to remove civil rights enforcement from the agency entirely and has focused its limited resources on targeting and discriminating against transgender students. …

[T]he findings have been consistent for decades: more than 1 in 4 undergraduate women are sexually assaulted. Among girls aged 14-18, over 20% are kissed or touched without their consent. Most of this violence is never reported. And as seen through the recent, horrific accounts from Cornell University and Louisiana State University, when schools do not respond appropriately, survivors are denied equal educational opportunities. …

We are counting on Congress to ensure Title IX’s promise is fulfilled so that there is meaningful institutional accountability as well as trauma-informed processes that support survivors and federal investigations and enforcement when schools fail to address sexual violence against students of all races, backgrounds, and genders.

We urge you to immediately take the following actions:

1. Compel the appearance of Secretary McMahon before your Committees to answer why the Department has taken almost no action to prevent and respond to sexual violence in schools, while dedicating limited resources to a political agenda to undermine the rights of transgender students by weaponizing Title IX;
2. Prohibit and reverse the transfer of OCR functions from the Department of Education;
3. Call upon OCR to prioritize investigating and resolving outstanding Title IX complaints of sexual violence, and prohibit OCR from weaponizing Title IX to target schools with educational programs that are inclusive of transgender students; and
4. Call upon OCR to open directed investigations at Cornell University and Louisiana State University to, consistent with the law, determine whether students’ civil rights were violated.

Every day that student survivors’ complaints remain uninvestigated, they are forced to continue their education alongside those who harmed them, to miss class, to withdraw from programs, or to leave school entirely. Students do not have the luxury of waiting for federal inaction to resolve itself. A generation of student survivors are experiencing the derailment of their education—and their futures—in real time. The time is now, and Congress must act.”

 

Read the full letter.