Title IX is a Federal civil rights law. It prohibits schools that receive Federal funding from discriminating based on sex in their programs or activities. The Department’s Title IX regulations include requirements for how schools must comply with Title IX, including in their athletic programs.
How does Title IX cover athletic teams in K-12 schools?
If your school receives Federal funding, all the programs and activities your school operates or sponsors—including its athletic program—are covered by Title IX. Public K-12 schools receive Federal funding, while private K-12 schools generally do not. However, if your private K-12 school receives Federal funding, it is covered by Title IX.
What does Title IX require for schools’ athletic programs?
The Title IX regulations require schools to provide equal opportunity based on sex. This requirement applies to schools’ athletic programs, including club, intramural, and interscholastic teams. Equal opportunity in K-12 school athletic programs is measured by:
1. The benefits, opportunities, and treatment given to boys and girls teams and
2. How a school is meeting students’ athletic interests and abilities.
Evaluating Your School’s Athletic Program
The sections that follow include information on these two points and sample questions you can ask your school. As noted above, a full Title IX investigation by OCR may involve additional questions and considerations. If OCR opens an investigation of your school regarding possible sex discrimination, OCR will seek the information needed to determine compliance through its Title IX enforcement authority. OCR evaluates each complaint on a case-by-case basis, considering the specific circumstances of the school and its athletic program.
Benefits, opportunities, and treatment for boys and girls teams
When a school offers boys and girls athletic teams, the Title IX regulations require that the school offer equivalent benefits, opportunities, and treatment to its boys and girls teams overall. Answering “no” to any of these questions may indicate a possible Title IX violation.6
Equipment and Supplies
- Does your school provide athletic gear of equivalent quality, quantity, suitability, condition, and availability for athletes on boys and girls teams? (For example, uniforms, apparel, sports equipment, general supplies)
Scheduling Games and Practice Time
- Do boys and girls teams both have a reasonable opportunity to compete before an audience? (For example, Sunday morning games may be less likely to generate attendance and interest than Friday night games. So, scheduling all girls teams’ games for Sunday mornings and all boys teams’ games for Friday nights would likely not provide the girls teams the same opportunity to compete before an audience as the boys teams.)
- Do the boys and girls teams play an adequate number of regular season games or other competitions for the team’s division level?
- Are scheduled practice times equally convenient for both boys and girls teams? (For example, always scheduling practice for the girls swim team at 5am and the boys swim team at 7am, would likely not provide equally convenient practice times.)
- Are the number and length of practice sessions equivalent for girls and boys teams in the same or similar sports?
Travel and Daily Allowance
- Do athletes on girls and boys teams use equivalent modes of transportation when traveling to away games or competitions? (For example, carpool, school bus, charter bus, airplane)
- Do athletes on girls and boys teams have equivalent accommodations when traveling overnight? (For example, quality of hotels, number of athletes per room)
- When athletes on girls and boys teams travel to games, are they offered equivalent meals or meal allowances? (For example, pre-game meals, set allowance per meal or per day)
Coaching
- Do boys and girls teams have coaches with equivalent qualifications? (For example, experience coaching, teaching, or playing at the high school, college, amateur, or professional level)
- Are coaches available to girl and boy athletes for equivalent amounts of time?
- Do coaches of boys and girls teams receive equivalent compensation?—If not, can differences in pay be justified by factors that could be nondiscriminatory? (For example, experience, number of athletes, extra responsibility to supervise other coaches, outstanding record of achievement, nondiscriminatory factors related to the context of recruiting and hiring coaches for specific sports)
- Do coaches of girls and boys teams have equivalent “other duties”? (For example, teaching versus full-time coaching)
Locker Rooms and Fields, Courts, or Other Facilities for Practice and Competition
- Do athletes on boys and girls teams have locker rooms of equivalent quality and size?
- Are the conditions of playing fields, courts, pools, and other practice/game facilities for boys and girls teams equivalent? (For example, quality, maintenance, access to restrooms, availability of spectator seating, scoreboards, lighting, and other amenities)
Medical and Training Facilities and Services
- Are the training and conditioning facilities for athletes on boys and girls teams of equivalent quality? (For example, type of equipment in each training facility/weight and conditioning room)
- Do members of boys and girls teams have equivalent access to training facilities? (For example, whether certain teams have priority or exclusive use of facilities while others have to share facilities)
- Do boys and girls teams have access to equivalent medical and training personnel/services? (For example, presence at away or home games, availability of annual physical exams, qualifications of personnel who conduct physical exams)
Publicity
- Does your school provide equivalent coverage for boys and girls teams and athletes on its website, social media, or other publicity?
- Are cheerleaders, pep bands, and drill teams provided equivalently for girls and boys teams?
Please also note that your school can accept voluntary support for teams from booster clubs, parents, and others. Those donations cannot justify discrimination under Title IX in your school’s benefits, opportunities, and treatment offered to its boys and girls teams. If booster clubs provide support for only boys teams, for example, your school must ensure that girls teams receive equivalent benefits, opportunities, and treatment. In addition, if booster clubs provide more support to boys than girls in your school’s athletic program or vice versa, then your school must ensure that the benefits, opportunities, and treatment are equivalent for both boys and girls in its athletic program. Failure to do so may indicate a possible Title IX violation.
