Education Law

Higher education institutions operate at the intersection of a complex maze of federal and state anti-discrimination statutes. As such, their obligations far exceed those of public and private businesses.  Ascent’s attorneys have extensive experience helping colleges and universities and their leaders, administrators, counsel, and athletic departments navigate these laws in both their educational operations (policies and procedures related to both employees and students) and diversity and inclusion initiatives and programs, all with minimal disruption to their unique academic environments and missions.

More specifically, Ascent attorneys have represented higher education institutions in a variety of agency inquiry, investigation, and litigation matters involving the wide variety of federal anti-discrimination laws – including, but not limited to, Title IX, Title VI, Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and other federal and state laws before the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) and its Office of Civil Rights (OCR).

With regard to federal civil rights laws, Ascent attorneys have significant expertise assisting higher education institutions comply with Title VI in the areas of admissions, services, affinity groups, and other offerings.  More specifically, Ascent’s experience includes the following:

  • Represent colleges and universities against Title VI individual and group claims of race and gender discrimination before the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) and its Office of Civil Rights (OCR) in a variety of settings including, but not limited to, admissions, course selection, grades, suspensions, expulsions, and adverse employment actions.

  • Perform internal investigations and audits of alleged systemic and “pattern or practice” claims related to various policies and practices in the higher education environment.  Assist in the identification of the “root cause” of any areas of statistically significant adverse impact emanating from the subject policies and practices and provide advice and counsel related to the mitigation of such statistical issues.

  • Provide advice and counsel and perform internal audits of college and university practices and programs that utilize protected classes (gender, race, etc.) as part of the selection process and procedure for admission, attendance, or participation.  Assist in the analysis of such programs under the Supreme Court’s “strict scrutiny” test and provide advice and counsel regarding mitigating risk.

  • Negotiate with the DOE and/or OCR regarding voluntary compliance agreements and, where necessary, defend against federal agency efforts to terminate federal assistance based on alleged Title VI violations.

  • Provide training programs for college and university officials and employees regarding Title VI compliance, the DOE/OCR enforcement regime, the Supreme Court’s “strict scrutiny” test, and overall “best practices” for promoting diversity and inclusion initiatives in the higher education environment under the auspices of Title VI.

On the Title IX front, Ascent attorneys have experience in the following areas:

  • Sexual misconduct policies, procedures, and claims, including training campus investigators.

  • Defense of Title IX/VAWA investigations and litigation.

  • Audit of institutional policies and compliance reviews and advice regarding best practices.

  • Litigation defense, agency investigations and federal audits.