US Education Department launches crackdown on sexual abuse in K‑12 schools

The Department of Education announced a new initiative to combat adult sexual predators in K‑12 schools across the United States. The Office for Civil Rights issued guidance reminding federally funded schools of their legal duty to protect children and report misconduct, and it launched 20 directed investigations into districts whose 2023‑24 civil‑rights data suggested inadequate responses to staff‑student sexual misconduct.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon warned that schools failing to act could lose federal assistance and condemned teacher‑union practices that she said shield abusers. The Department has also opened a Title IX probe into the Los Angeles Unified School District for allegedly protecting predators. A 2023 report cited a 55 % rise in sexual‑violence incidents in U.S. public schools between the 2015‑16 and 2017‑18 school years, highlighting the scope of the problem.