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Single Sex Programs Increasing Due to Bush-Era Regulations

Sex-segregation in schools has been increasing since the Department of Education under former President George W. Bush administered regulations in 2006 that weakened Title IX and eased restrictions on single sex public classrooms and public schools at primary and secondary levels. The 2006 regulations do not extend to higher education or to any level of vocational education. Some 500 public schools have started single-sex programs since the Bush Administration indicated its plans to alter Title IX.

The original 1975 Title IX regulations permitted sex-segregated education under very limited circumstances, such as single-sex schools and classes when they are needed to overcome the effects of gender discrimination, but the 2006 regulations no longer tie the key justification for allowing sex segregation to overcoming the effects of sex discrimination.

FMF Campaign to Rescind Bush Regulations:

The Feminist Majority Foundation has launched a campaign together with other leading women’s groups, civil rights, and educational organizations to rescind the 2006 regulations for the following reasons:

Sex segregation is more likely to increase sex discrimination and sex stereotyping in education rather than reduce it.
Separate is not equal or fair to all. It is very difficult to provide even "substantial" equality in sex segregated schools, classes, resources, or activities.
There is more variation within groups of girls and boys than between them.
Many sex segregated classes and schools are based on inaccurate claims of innate student differences by sex and related myths that male and female students learn differently and should receive dissimilar instruction.
Research does not generally support the superiority of sex segregation in advancing student learning or in decreasing sex discrimination.
Sex segregated educational programs have been found to violate Title IX (even after the 2006 regulations were instituted), the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, the Equal Educational Opportunities Act, and a number of state-level laws.

Link to FMF Campaign Fact Sheet

Recent Legal Victories to Stop Sex Segregation:

Lawrence County, AL Public Schools Settlement
Lawrence County, Alabama public school officials reached a settlement July 6, 2009 after being notified by the American Civil Liberties Union that its sex segregated programs were illegal. Under the agreement (see PDF), the Lawrence County school district will integrate all classes beginning in fall 2009 and will not implement any single-sex programs for three years. The school district must notify the ACLU of any single-sex programs instituted between 2012 and 2015.

ACLU Press Release: http://aclu.org/womensrights/edu/40127prs20090706.html
FMF News: http://feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=11800

Mobile, AL Settlement
A settlement agreement was reached March 24, 2009 to end illegal and discriminatory sex segregation in the Mobile, Alabama School District this week. According to the settlement agreement Hankins Middle School immediately ceased “any segregation by sex, or segregation by academic teams that has the effect of segregating by sex." Beginning in the 2009-2010 school year, the school district will not "carry out any of its education programs or activities separately on the basis of sex, or require or refuse participation in any school, any course, or any education program or activity by any students on the basis of sex."

Link to Settlement: http://www.aclu.org/womensrights/edu/39130lgl20090324.html
FMF News: http://feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=11601

Supreme Court Ruling in Fitzgerald v. BarnstableSchool Committee
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously January 21, 2009 that plaintiffs who experience gender discrimination can sue under both Title IX and the Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution in Fitzgerald v. Barnstable School Committee (see PDF). The Feminist Majority Foundation signed an amicus brief in the case that was filed by the Women's Rights Project of the ACLU and the National Women's Law Center.

Single Sex Schools

Single Sex Programs Increasing Due to Bush-Era Regulations