When the employee resigns, the Title IX obligation does not

What happened

On September 17, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education announced that Virginia Beach City Public Schools had entered into a resolution agreement with its Office for Civil Rights (OCR) under Title IX. According to the Department, district records for the 2017 through 2020 school years reflected approximately 117 incidents of sexual harassment, 88 incidents of indecent exposure by a student, one forcible rape, and eight incidents involving inappropriate touching by an employee or sexual intercourse between an employee and a student. For that entire period, the district produced 12 investigation reports.

OCR concluded that the district failed to adequately investigate and record reports of sexual misconduct against students, and that it handled those reports as disciplinary matters without a Title IX grievance process. Under the agreement, the district will revise its Title IX policies and grievance procedures for student-on-student and employee-on-student allegations, issue an OCR-approved nondiscrimination statement, give notice of its Title IX Coordinator, build an OCR-approved district-wide recordkeeping system, train all employees, and respond to every report consistent with Title IX even if the accused employee resigns.

Why this development is significant

A resolution agreement is not a new rule. It binds one district, and it does not change the regulatory text that applies to anyone else. What it offers is a clear view of what OCR treats as a failure and what it requires as a remedy.

Two features stand out. The first is the distance between the number of recorded incidents and the number of investigation reports. OCR did not find that the district ignored misconduct. It found that the district handled reports as disciplinary matters and treated discipline as the whole response. A suspension addresses the conduct of one student. It does not by itself provide the complainant with supportive measures, a grievance process, notice of rights, or a determination about whether a hostile environment exists.

The second is the resignation term. Many institutions close an employee matter when the accused employee resigns, retires, or is not renewed, often on the reasoning that there is no longer anyone to discipline. OCR's remedy rejects that reasoning. The obligation runs to the student and the school community, not only to the employee.

Because the review period runs from 2017 through 2020, much of it predates the 2020 Title IX regulations. The core obligations at issue, to respond to reports and to document that response, exist under every version of the framework.

What it means for institutions

• Discipline is not a substitute for a Title IX response. When a report describes sexual harassment, the Title IX Coordinator's obligations are triggered regardless of which office first receives it or what sanction a student ultimately receives.
• Records are the evidence. In an OCR review, a response that was not documented is difficult to distinguish from a response that did not happen. The 2020 regulations require institutions to keep records of each investigation, determination, appeal, informal resolution, and the supportive measures offered, for seven years.
• Employee departures need a defined pathway. A resignation may end the employment relationship, but the institution still has to address the effects on the complainant, determine whether others were affected, and decide what the record will show. State educator licensing and reporting obligations may also apply.
• The basics still appear in findings. Current nondiscrimination statements, published coordinator contact information, and all-employee training continue to appear in remedies. They are inexpensive to fix and consistently cited.

What compliance leaders should review

1. Pull a sample of sexual misconduct entries from your student discipline system for the past two school years and match each to a Title IX intake record. Each should show a documented decision by the Title IX Coordinator, including a decision not to proceed and the reason.
2. Confirm that building administrators and deans understand that handling a matter through discipline does not close the Title IX obligation, and that they route reports to the Coordinator promptly.
3. Review human resources separation procedures. When an employee under investigation resigns, retires, or is not renewed, is the Coordinator notified the same day? Does the file record what was found, why the process ended, and what remedies were offered to the complainant?
4. Check that your nondiscrimination statement and Title IX Coordinator contact information are current and published everywhere the regulations require.
5. Confirm that training records cover all employees, not only administrators and investigators, and that you can produce them on request.
6. Test your retention practice against the seven-year requirement, including records held in email and in student information and personnel systems.

What remains uncertain

The Department's announcement summarizes the agreement's terms. The monitoring timelines, reporting requirements, and whether OCR will review individual case files will be set by the agreement text itself, which we have not reviewed.

It is also unclear how monitoring of existing agreements will be handled as the Department of Justice assumes more of OCR's complaint work under the interagency agreement the two departments signed in June 2026.

Finally, a resolution agreement signals enforcement priorities but does not establish new legal requirements for other institutions. Its value is as a benchmark: if OCR reviewed your files tomorrow, would the records show a Title IX response to every report, including those involving employees who have since left?

Sources

• U.S. Department of Education, "U.S. Department of Education Secures Resolution Agreement with Virginia Beach City Public Schools to Restore Protections Against Sexual Misconduct," September 17, 2026.
• U.S. Department of Education, "Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex in Education Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance," Final Rule, 85 Fed. Reg. 30026, May 19, 2020 (34 C.F.R. 106.8 and 106.45(b)(10)).
• U.S. Department of Education, "Fact Sheet: Department of Education (ED) and Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Partnership."