PFLUGERVILLE, Texas — Pflugerville ISD is disputing a ruling from the U.S. Department of Education after the agency said the district violated Title IX during its response to a sexual assault case.
The department ruled the district failed to respond equitably after one student was allegedly assaulted by another student in a school bathroom in the 2018-2019 school year. The department also said the district didn't provide disability accommodations for that student afterwards.
It is asking the district to appoint a Title IX coordinator and conduct more Title IX training with staff, among other requests.
But a Pflugerville ISD spokesperson said district staff fully investigated the incident and accommodated that student. The spokesperson claims the district is being held to standards set in 2020, after the alleged incident happened.
Due to FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), the district cannot specifically address those accommodations, the spokesperson said.
The district spokesperson also said Pflugerville ISD spent thousands of dollars and hours of time giving the Department of Education what it needed during the investigation but that agency left it unresolved for years.
“The resolution process draws both administrative resources and financial resources away from the district’s educational priorities,” the Pflugerville ISD spokesperson said. “During the five-year period that OCR investigated this matter, the district expended thousands of dollars and untold hours of staff time in responding to OCR’s requests for information. Over 15 individuals were interviewed by the OCR over multiple days. Then, inexplicably, the matter went unresolved for years. OCR only this year decided to pursue this matter that they did not pursue for multiple years.”