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The New York City Department of Education will make sweeping changes to the way it investigates sexual assault complaints after reaching with four female students who allege officials failed to protect them from sex-based violence, including rape.

Along with paying $700,000 in damages, the DOE agreed to changes that were designed to make it easier for students to file complaints and render the investigation process more transparent for families. The four plaintiffs, all of them students of color with disabilities, in 2019.

鈥淏y coming forward more than two years ago, four young survivors have profoundly changed a school system for hundreds of thousands of current and future New York City students and families,鈥� Joanne Smith, president and CEO of Girls for Gender Equity, said in a press release.

The New York City district is among multiple urban education systems to face charges that they mishandled or ignored students鈥� complaints of sexual assault 鈥斅燼 practice groups representing victims argue has gone on for years. The settlement, announced Tuesday by the students鈥� attorneys at Legal Services NYC, landed as the Biden administration , the federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in public schools, and backtracks on Trump-era rules that bolstered the due-process rights of students accused of sexual misconduct.

Amy Leipziger, a senior staff attorney at Legal Services NYC, said the settlement provisions go far beyond those required by federal law. She compared the Trump-era regulations to the 鈥淲ild West,鈥� adding that federal officials 鈥渃ould not have made it any less transparent if they tried,鈥� leaving both advocates and educators to 鈥渋nterpret what it even meant.鈥�

But at the local level, that federal ambiguity created 鈥渁 lot of room for some creative advocacy,鈥� she said. Specifically, she said federal rules are the floor, but don鈥檛 prohibit local officials from reaching higher.

鈥淎s local advocates and local officials, we can create broader protections and move it up to the ceiling,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 think that鈥檚 our obligation, and that鈥檚 something we feel really proud of.鈥�

Among the changes, the city education department will create a process allowing parents to escalate complaints when they believe school officials failed to adequately address abuse allegations, provide support to student victims and update school transfer policies to make clear that students can ask to attend classes elsewhere following instances of harassment or assault. Officials also agreed to create a guide that informs educators about how trauma can affect learning and how special education teams should assess the impact of trauma among children with disabilities.

The lawsuit alleged that the city education department violated Title IX when officials repeatedly ignored assault and misconduct complaints by the students who were between the ages of 12 and 18 at the time of the alleged incidents. Two of the students were allegedly raped by classmates and two others said they were subjected to repeated verbal abuses, groped and sexually assaulted by their peers.

In , a 14-year-old girl with autism reported being raped in a school stairwell by a classmate who, she had earlier told school officials, had abused her off and on for years. In another, a sixth-grade girl with an intellectual disability reported being raped by a classmate in a shed near campus while walking home from school. After reporting a sexual assault, one teacher allegedly told a victim 鈥淥h, he just likes you,鈥� and in another incident, a school dean told a student victim that her perpetrator was just 鈥渁 touch-feely kind of person.鈥�

Education Department spokeswoman Katie O鈥橦anlon said the changes will 鈥減rovide greater clarity to students, parents and staff鈥� regarding the department鈥檚 obligations to prevent sexual misconduct and will improve its 鈥渆ffectiveness in preventing and addressing this conduct.鈥�

鈥淓very student deserves to feel safe, welcomed and affirmed in their school and there is zero tolerance for sexual and gender-based harassment of any kind at the DOE,鈥� O鈥橦anlon said in a statement. 鈥淲e have made it easier to report harassment and provided more robust trainings for staff so that the strongest safeguards are in place for all students, especially for our students with disabilities.鈥�

For years, the New York City school system has student sexual abuse and misconduct cases. O鈥橦anlon said the department has hired a permanent citywide Title IX coordinator and seven borough-based coordinators and trained nearly 8,000 school staff members last year on dating violence, student-on-student sexual harassment and gender inclusivity.

The additional changes created under the latest court settlement are a step in the right direction, one plaintiff鈥檚 mother said. But the damage is already done.

鈥淒ue to that traumatic event, my child suffers every day,鈥� the mother of 鈥淛ane Doe,鈥� the student who reported being raped in the school stairwell, . Her daughter remains traumatized by the incident to this day, she said. 鈥淪he can鈥檛 focus as she did before. She lost a lot of interest in a lot of things, she鈥檚 depressed, she has nightmares.鈥�

Throughout the Trump administration, federal education officials forced dozens of school districts to revise their strategies to combat sexual assault after uncovering deficiencies. In 2019, Chicago Public Schools reached a sweeping agreement with federal investigators after officials found efforts to combat sexual misconduct in the nation’s third-largest school district ran counter to federal law. At the same time, the Trump administration released revised Title IX rules that bolstered the rights of students accused of sexual misconduct, and although the debate generally centers on how incidents are handled on college campuses, it brought profound changes to K-12 schools. Among them, the regulations narrowed the definition of sexual harassment and absolved educators from investigating most off-campus incidents.

President Joe Biden has vowed to scrap the Trump-era Title IX regulations, and the U.S. Department of Education has to release proposed changes by May 2022. For Leipziger, that timeline is far too long, especially as children return to schools for in-person learning during the pandemic. It鈥檚 up to local advocates, she said, to move forward knowing that federal rules don鈥檛 preclude school districts from adopting more expansive protections.

鈥淚 think our settlement has done that in a lot of ways,鈥� she said. 鈥淓very city and every school district and every state is going to have to take it upon themselves to say, 鈥榃e recognize that.鈥欌��

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