Title IX Hearing Officer and Decision-Maker

Explore the neutral and impartial role of decision-maker.

Title IX Hearing Officer and Decision-Maker is a two-day course focused on the skills needed to serve as an effective hearing decision-maker by ensuring the parties’ rights are upheld and the hearing process is equitable. Training is necessary to help decision-makers recognize and overcome bias, to understand the scope of their role, to apply policy with analytical precision, and to be sure that their determination is reliably based on the evidence. Both VAWA Section 304 and the 2020 Title IX Regulations require training for decision-makers, and this course meets the training requirements under both laws and is appropriate for individuals who will serve as hearing chairs, panelists, single decision-makers, administrative hearing facilitators, and party advisors, as well as appeal decision-makers.

Please note, this course is focused on Higher Education and will not include K-12 specific content. To attend ATIXA’s K-12 Decision-Maker course, click HERE.

This level of training is good for your school, good for the parties, and good for the integrity of the process. The principals behind ATIXA have been training hearing decision-makers for more than 20 years, and now your decision-makers, chairs, hearing facilitators, and party advisors can benefit from their expansive expertise in an interactive ATIXA certification training environment where practical skills, including case studies and questioning exercises, are the primary focus.

“Nobody trains a jury, so why does a hearing panel need training?” The analogy to a jury is only partially correct. College and school hearing panels have a fact-finding role, like juries, but also an investigative responsibility that juries do not have. That added responsibility enhances the training needed to perform the role well. And, of course, decision-makers must be trained per VAWA Section 304. If Congress thought training was necessary, it must have realized that the jury analogy is imperfect. Or perhaps Congress recognized that the premise is wrong…juries are trained. One of the primary functions of the lawyers, judges, expert witnesses, and jury instructions is to provide guidance to the jury on how it should analyze a case. That’s training, it just happens on the job, in the courtroom. ATIXA’s approach provides the key skills decision-makers need to serve this role proficiently in a college hearing environment.