Announcement
On Tuesday, September 29, 2026, the United States Department of Education announced publication of a final rule regarding the federal Title IX regulations. Federal Register :: Recodification of Title IX Rules As discussed below, with a few changes the new final rule simply codifies in current federal regulations the 2020 Title IX regulations that were promulgated toward the end of the first Trump administration. In fact, the Department of Education has enforced the 2020 Title IX regulations since January 2025. [i]
In brief, the 2026 final rule states that the 2024 Title IX regulations, which have remained in the Code of Federal Regulations since 2024, have been repealed and replaced in the CFR by the provisions of the 2020 Title IX regulations. Toward the end of the Biden administration, the Department of Education issued the 2024 Title IX regulations following an extensive rule making process. Those regulations were incorporated into the Code of Federal Regulations and replaced enforcement of the 2020 Title IX regulations—but only for a brief period. The 2024 Title IX regulations were immediately challenged in several federal courts and enjoined from enforcement in 26 states shortly after their promulgation. On January 31, 2025 and February 4, 2025, the second Trump administration issued “Dear Colleague” letters directing institutions to comply with the 2020 Title IX regulations. While the Department of Education did not enforce the 2024 regulations over the past year and a half, they nevertheless remained in the CFR until September 29, 2026.
The Department of Education has characterized its decision to repeal the 2024 regulations and instead codify the 2020 regulations in the CFR as necessary to provide clarity and transparency for those reading the federal regulations. The Department chose not to engage in the rule making process in issuing this new final rule. Instead, it indicated that “this final rule merely returns the CFR to its appearance prior to the promulgation of the 2024 Rule….” The Department said it found “good cause to dispense with public notice and comment because such notice and comment would be both unnecessary and contrary to the public interest.”
The Department noted what it characterized as four minor exceptions or changes to the 2020 regulations in codifying the new rule.
The first change was the deletion of the sentence in 34 CFR 106.45(b)(6)(i) that prohibited a hearing official from relying on a statement from a party or witness who did not submit to cross-examination. This change reflects the federal court decision in Victim Rts. L. Ctr. v. Cardona, 552 F. Supp. 3d 104, 132-34 (D. Mass. 2021) that required consideration of statements in such circumstances.
The second change was the deletion of Appendix A to 34 CFR part 106. Appendix A had previously been removed by a final rule published by the Department earlier in 2026. This rule was captioned Rescinding Guidelines for Eliminating Discrimination and Denial of Services on the Basis of Race, Color, National Origin, Sex, and Handicap in Vocational Education Programs,91 FR 46285-94 (July 23, 2026).
The third and fourth changes were essentially house-keeping in nature. Two provisions from the 2020 regulations that provided for periods of adjustment or implementation were deleted since the periods of time stated have passed. Specifically, 34 CFR 106.41(d), which provided institutions an “adjustment period” of either one year or three years to come into compliance with the remainder of 34 CFR 106.41was deleted. Other than subsection (d) the remainder of 34 CFR 106.41 was retained. Similarly, the final rule did not reinstate 34 CFR 106.3(c)-(d). In explaining this deletion, the Department stated that
34 CFR 106.3(c) required recipients to assess their policies and make appropriate changes ‘within one year of the effective date of this part.’ That one-year deadline passed about 45 years ago. 34 CFR 106.3(d) required recipients to maintain records from their reviews conducted under subsection 106.3(c) for at least three years, to be provided to the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights on request. That three-year deadline passed approximately four decades ago.
We offer a final observation regarding discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identification: while the 2024 Title IX regulations prohibited discrimination on these bases, the 2020 regulations and the new final rule do not. Several institutions have prohibited these forms of discrimination in their policies, and we are not aware of a federal prohibition of doing so. However, participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports has been hotly contested. In the cases West Virginia v. B.P.J, 609 U.S. _____ (2026) Docket 24-43, and Little v. Hecox, 609 U.S. ______ (2026) Docket 24-38, the U.S. Supreme Court held that states could ban transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports. Consequently, advice of attorneys familiar with the appropriate laws of the states in which institutions are located will be critical in determining how an institution may proceed in this area.
[i] This announcement is not intended to provide or substitute for legal advice or guidance. It is offered as a courtesy to viewers of the BartlettJames, LLC, website. Legal advice and counseling should be obtained from supporting in-house or outside attorneys.
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Background Investigations
Our in-depth, forensic background investigations are conducted by retired Senior FBI and Department of Defense investigators.
General University Investigations
We provide proven, effective and timely service to campus leadership, working under the attorney-client privilege of your general counsel or outside counsel.
Overview
Colleges and universities must be prepared to respond to Title IX allegations promptly while adhering to applicable federal Title IX regulations1 and institutional policies. BartlettJames is here to assist by providing the full range of Title IX services and a team of experienced professionals to support your institution.
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Your success depends upon reliable, timely, and professionally developed information. Our investigations put clarity and precision at your fingertips and our administrative adjudications provide independent and objective decision-making. Whether you require narrowly tailored, discreet fact-finding or a campus-wide, multi-department assessment or an adjudication of contested facts, our highly experienced professionals are ready to support your needs.
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James P. Pottorff, Jr..
One of the original and most influential leaders of our company, his education, guidance, and general counsel background and expertise were critical in our initial development and will continue to be so in our efforts to serve the nation’s higher education community.
Jim has over 30 years’ experience providing legal advice and counsel to complex organizations, including over 20 years’ combined service as the General Counsel for the University of Kansas and subsequently for the University of Nebraska. As such, he served as the principal legal advisor to the universities’ chief executive officers and other senior administrators. Both universities are comprehensive research universities with academic medical centers and student populations ranging from 28,000 to 51,000 on multiple university campuses. Faculty and staff employees ranged from 7,000 to 16,000. His duties included supervision of 10 or more attorneys and support staff and responsibility for legal advice on all university operational matters, including investigations covering student affairs, labor and employment matters, Title IX compliance, and intercollegiate athletics.
Prior to his university career, Jim was a career Army officer. His 25-plus years in in the Army were served primarily in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, where he was promoted to the rank of Colonel. He served as the Staff Judge Advocate (SJA) for the 10th Mountain Division and Ft. Drum, New York, where he had a staff of 21 attorneys and more than 50 support personnel to assist more than 10,500 soldiers and 2,000 civilian employees. He also served as the Deputy SJA for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York providing legal services that included employment law, sexual harassment law, labor law, student discipline, intercollegiate athletics, and intellectual property law, as well as advice and oversight on investigations for staff and students. He has held above top secret security clearances and been involved in sensitive investigations during his career.
Jim is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York with a Bachelor of Science degree in general engineering. He is also a graduate of the University of Kansas School of Law where he was an Articles Editor of the Kansas Law Review and a member of Moot Court Council. Jim earned an M.A. degree in national security and strategic studies, with highest distinction, finishing first in his class academically, from the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, and he holds an LL.M., with distinction, in Administrative Law from The Judge Advocate General’s School, U.S. Army, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Finally, in addition to graduating from the resident course of the Army’s Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, he earned an M.A. degree in human resource management from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.
K. Michele Allison-Davis.
Michele is a member of the BartlettJames Executive Committee and serves as a highly respected Title IX investigator. She provides a wealth of executive legal experience and seasoned judgment from her 24-year career in legal education and the myriad positions she held as a practicing attorney in other organizations. She has a distinguished background in diversity leadership and affirmative action matters. Michele is based in North Carolina.
Michele began her legal career with positions as an Associate Attorney General for the State of North Carolina in Raleigh, North Carolina, as a staff attorney for the United Auto Workers-General Motors Legal Services, as an Assistant City Attorney for the City of Shreveport, Louisiana, and as a Supervising Attorney for The Public Law Center at Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana. Married to a now-retired U.S. Air Force officer, she found herself moving to accompany her husband as his career required him to relocate around the country.
Settling into legal academia, Michele became the Assistant Dean of Admissions, Financial Aid, and Diversity Affairs at the Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans, Louisiana. There she served as the school’s diversity officer and routinely counseled students on diversity issues, complaints, and concerns while planning multicultural activities. She additionally advised the Law School Dean on diversity issues as they arose and drafted the Affirmative Action Statements for the ABA accreditation process, including a statistical analysis of student bodies regarding diversity. Michele also managed the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid while also serving as a member of the Administration, Staff, and Faculty Diversity Committee, as an advisor to the Black Law Student Association, and as an advisor to the Student Diversity Committee. She did this while managing an annual budget of more than two million dollars and meeting strategic recruitment and enrollment goals each year.
Michele received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She earned her Juris Doctorate from North Carolina Central University of Law in Durham, North Carolina, where she was an Honor Graduate and a member of the North Carolina Central University Law Review.
Peter J. Paukstelis.
Pete provides guidance on all matters pertaining to collegiate athletics. Pete has more than 25 years of diversified experience representing a wide array of corporate, institutional, and individual clients in a host of different litigation and transactional matters. Pete is based in North Carolina.
Following law school and before entering the world of intercollegiate athletics, Pete was engaged in private practice in both big firms and a solo practice. While working as an associate at Stinson, Mag & Fizzell (now Stinson LLP) in Kansas City, and later as a senior associate at Latham & Watkins in Los Angeles, Pete represented many large corporations and his litigation practice was diverse and included matters such as employment discrimination, oil and gas explosions, commercial litigation, and theft of trade secrets. Pete also managed a successful solo practice focused on plaintiff’s employment discrimination and personal injury litigation. He personally investigated and built hundreds of plaintiff’s cases, including those involving child abuse, sexual assault and harassment, and discrimination based on race, color, sex, age, disability, and pregnancy. Pete never lost a case on a motion to dismiss, a motion for summary judgment, or at trial as a solo practitioner.
Pete served as Associate General Counsel at Kansas State University, in Manhattan, Kansas, for 11 years. His practice focused on intercollegiate athletics, Title IX, Title VII, the ADA, and complex transactional work. He guided hundreds of internal discrimination investigations and regularly provided training for internal investigators. Pete also successfully defended discrimination claims, including disability and sex discrimination matters. He has been a repeat guest speaker for an intercollegiate athletics class at Columbia University’s Sports Management program, and he has presented at the National Association of College and University Attorney’s national conference on Title IX matters. Pete continues to work in intercollegiate athletics.
Pete graduated from the University of Kansas with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy and Biology. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School.
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BartlettJames is a leading investigation and compliance firm for institutions of higher education.