H.R. 1557 — Stop Sexual Harassment in K–12 Act

This section requires each local educational agency (LEA) receiving federal financial assistance to increase the number of full-time Title IX Coordinators by at least one per 75,000 students in 7th grade or above and one per 150,000 students in 6th grade or below; ensure students, parents or guardians, and staff are aware of the coordinators, their roles, and availability; prohibit coordinators from holding conflicting school-related responsibilities (e.g., principal, superintendent, or athletics director); and deem coordinators, along with principals, teachers, coaches, and others, appropriate persons for disclosing sex discrimination under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (20 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.). The section specifies coordinator duties, including (1) providing information, outreach, and training on sex discrimination rights and compliance; (2) disseminating nondiscrimination notices, policies, procedures, and contact information; (3) monitoring sex discrimination complaints (including those involving sexual orientation, gender identity, sex characteristics, pregnancy, violence, and harassment), supportive measures, accommodations, and outcomes; (4) identifying and addressing patterns of sex discrimination; (5) monitoring and addressing barriers to reporting; (6) coordinating climate surveys (including under section 4) to proactively address sex discrimination; and (7) overseeing annual, trauma-informed prevention education and training in partnership with rape crisis centers, sexual assault or domestic violence coalitions, or community organizations. This section authorizes the Secretary of Education to grant waivers for insurmountable financial burdens if grants under subsection (d) are unavailable, requiring an alternative plan with a memorandum of understanding for partnering with a rape crisis center or trauma support organization to provide awareness, prevention training, and supportive measures; and directs the Secretary to pursue voluntary resolution if a waived LEA fails to follow its plan or if the plan proves insufficient.

This section authorizes the Secretary of Education to award grants to local educational agencies to train elementary school and secondary school teachers and other school staff on preventing, recognizing, and responding to signs of sex-based harassment and assault among students or between students and adults. Grant applications must include a training plan and demonstration of need, with awards required within six months of the application deadline; the Secretary must ensure equitable geographic distribution (including rural and urban areas), prioritize underserved areas and applicants lacking other funds for such training or demonstrating student support, and use funds to supplement (not supplant) other federal or state funds. The section authorizes $50 million annually for the first five fiscal years following enactment.

This section directs the Secretary of Education, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to develop an anonymous, empirically validated, trauma-informed survey assessing sex-based harassment experiences (including off-campus and online incidents) among elementary and secondary school students and staff, with developmentally appropriate questions varying by respondent type and age group. It requires the Secretary to provide local educational agencies (LEAs) receiving federal funds a mechanism to administer and modify the survey, mandates annual LEA administration beginning not later than 2 years after the mechanism is available (ensuring accessibility for individuals with disabilities), and requires survey responses to be collected by non-close contacts without personally identifiable information. The section further requires the Secretary to compile disaggregated statistics from survey results beginning 6 months after the first results are available and every 2 years thereafter (disaggregated by LEA unless it risks revealing individual information), make the statistics publicly available on the Department of Education website, and cover specified topics including harassment modalities, program effectiveness for subpopulations (e.g., students of color, LGBTQ+ students, students with disabilities), policy awareness (including Title IX coordinators), educational impacts, perpetrator types, reporting and investigation outcomes, retaliation, and bystander intervention attitudes; students may optionally report demographics, and parents may opt out.

This section provides a rule of construction clarifying that nothing in the Act preempts, invalidates, or limits rights, remedies, procedures, or legal standards available to victims of discrimination or retaliation under other federal laws—including Titles VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000d et seq.), Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (20 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794), and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12101 et seq.)—or under 42 U.S.C. 1983 or state/local laws. (Thus, obligations imposed by the Act are in addition to those under the listed laws.)

This section expresses the sense of Congress that it is valuable for students to have access to confidential reporting of sex-based harassment and abuse and that schools should attempt to provide such access to the extent possible in accordance with state and local laws.

This section establishes definitions for 15 terms used in the Act, including dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking (as defined in the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, 34 U.S.C. 12291(a), or FBI uniform crime reporting); discrimination on the basis of sex (to include sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity); elementary school (ESEA definition plus public or private preschool); secondary school (ESEA definition plus institutions of vocational education serving secondary school students); local educational agency (as defined in ESEA, 20 U.S.C. 7801); federal financial assistance, recipient, and Title IX Coordinator (consistent with Title IX regulations, 20 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.); institution of vocational education; pregnancy or related conditions (to include childbirth, termination of pregnancy, lactation, miscarriage, and related medical care); and sex-based harassment (encompassing sexual assault, domestic or dating violence, stalking, unwelcome sexual conduct including via electronic means, quid pro quo harassment by recipient employees or agents, and hostile environment conduct).