Social media post is wrong about proposal to change data collection on teacher sexual misconduct

A social media post says a federal requirement for schools to report teacher sexual misconduct is at risk, but the post references an outdated proposal that has been withdrawn, and it describes that proposal in a misleading way.

A Jan. 30 post on Facebook reads, "Joe Biden wants to eliminate a regulation that requires school districts to report allegations of teacher on student rape, alleged rape, and sexual assault."

The post also says, "TAKE ACTION: Send a message to Biden and the Department of Education to KEEP this regulation!" and includes a link to a website with an email comment form. The site appears to be operated by FreedomWorks, a conservative and libertarian advocacy group based in Washington.

The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

The post, which refers to a Nov. 19 proposal from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, gives the false impression that the proposed change would have resulted in allegations of sexual misconduct, such as a rape in school, going unreported to law enforcement and not being investigated. That’s not the case. The proposal referred only to the federal government’s collection of data about such allegations.

Moreover, the proposal would not have eliminated the data reporting requirements altogether, as the post suggests. Rather, it would have eliminated the collection of some statistics about sexual misconduct by school staff.

In any case, the proposal was withdrawn several weeks before the Facebook post. Under a new Dec. 13 proposal, the data will continue to be collected.

Every two years, the U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights conducts a survey of public schools to collect data about access and barriers to educational opportunity. 

The proposal for the 2021-22 school year data collection was announced Nov. 18, when the agency submitted it to the Federal Register for public comment. The public had 60 days to provide comments. 

The proposed changes to data collection were aimed at reducing the reporting burden on schools and school districts, the proposal said, and would have eliminated some data points related to the number of allegations made against a school staff member.

For example, under the original proposal, the Office for Civil Rights would have no longer asked districts to report how many allegations were made against a particular school staff member in certain situations. If an employee accused of rape, attempted rape or sexual assault at school subsequently resigned or retired before being disciplined or terminated, then the number of allegations against that person would not have to be reported.

"However, OCR will continue to collect data on the number of documented incidents of offenses that occur at the school, including the number of documented incidents of sexual assault committed by students and staff," the original proposal said.

Before the 60-day period expired, the proposed rule was replaced with a new one. In the new Dec. 13 proposal, the agency said it would retain those data elements and would continue to collect the data.

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The website the Facebook post links to said, "After hearing outcries from the grassroots, the Biden administration is now re-thinking getting rid of this requirement. Your voices are being heard, but the Biden administration's terrible idea is still on the table."

That is incorrect. The withdrawn proposal was replaced with a new one that "maintains the five data elements" that were proposed for elimination, it says.

A Facebook post says, "Joe Biden wants to eliminate a regulation that requires school districts to report allegations of teacher on student rape, alleged rape, and sexual assault."

The post refers to a proposed federal rule change that had already been withdrawn weeks before the post was made. And it describes the proposal in a misleading way.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, which conducts a biennial survey of public schools, had proposed to stop collecting certain data points about sexual assaults and rapes by school staff — not eliminating the reporting requirements altogether.

The post gives the impression that the proposed change would have resulted in allegations going unreported to law enforcement and not being investigated. That’s not the case. The proposal covers only data collection by the federal government.

Under a new proposal submitted Dec. 13, the data will continue to be collected.

We rate this claim False.