Title IX Coordinator as Investigator

Yes. The Title IX regulations state in 34 C.F.R. § 106.45(b)(7)(i) that the decision-maker “cannot be the same person(s) as the Title IX Coordinator or the investigator(s).” Similarly, the regulations state in 34 C.F.R. § 106.45(b)(8)(iii)(B) that a decision-maker for an appeal is “not the same person as the decision-maker(s) that reached the determination regarding responsibility or dismissal, the investigator(s), or the Title IX Coordinator.” Neither of these provisions prevents a Title IX Coordinator from also serving as an investigator (though, as stated above, not as a decision-maker). Indeed, at page 30370 of the Preamble to the regulations, the Department notes: “The . . . final regulations leave significant flexibility to recipients, including whether the Title IX Coordinator can also serve as the investigator, whether to use a panel of decision-makers or a single decisionmaker, and whether to use the recipient’s own employees or outsource investigative and adjudicative functions to professionals outside the recipient’s employ.”