With certain exceptions, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 requires all entities receiving any form of federal financial assistance to prohibit sex discrimination in their education programs or activities, which are defined broadly under Title IX to include all the operations of the entity. Because most postsecondary schools have students who receive federal financial assistance, such as federally supported student aid, Title IX applies to most 2-year and 4-year schools, both public and private. In addition to postsecondary schools, many other recipients of federal educational grants, such as K-12 school districts, private laboratories, and museums, are also subject to Title IX. Title IX’s provisions apply to all operations and ancillary services of covered programs. For example, the law applies to recruitment, student admissions, scholarship awards, tuition assistance, other financial assistance, housing, access to courses and other academic offerings, counseling, employment assistance to students, health and insurance benefits and services, and athletics. It also applies to all aspects of employment, including recruitment, hiring, promotion, tenure, demotion, transfer, layoff, termination, compensation, benefits, job assignments and classifications, leave, and training. Under Title IX, federal agencies that administer grants are required to conduct several compliance activities. For example, Title IX regulations require agencies to conduct periodic compliance reviews of their grant recipients. A compliance review is an agency-initiated assessment of grantees to determine if they are complying with the law. Agencies must also make a prompt investigation in response to timely written complaints from individuals who allege that a grantee has engaged in sex discrimination, or whenever a compliance review or any other information indicates a possible failure to comply with Title IX. If the investigating agency does not find evidence that the grantee has failed to comply with Title IX, it must inform both the grant recipient and the complainant in writing. If the investigating agency does find evidence of noncompliance with Title IX, then the agency must first attempt to resolve the matter informally. For example, the agency could attempt to mediate the issue to encourage the grantee to voluntarily modify its activities in order to comply with the law. If the matter cannot be resolved informally, then the agency must take additional steps to secure compliance, including suspending or terminating federal financial assistance. Individuals or groups are allowed to file their complaints with grantees or with funding agencies such as Education or NSF. If complainants are not satisfied with the result of investigations, they can file their complaints with another entity. For example, if a complaint is filed at the grantee level and the complainant is unhappy with the result, he or she can file a complaint at the agency level. In addition to filing complaints, individuals or groups have the option of filing suit in federal court. (See app. III for information on selected legal cases and events involving Title IX since 1972.) While federal agencies have primary responsibility for ensuring compliance with Title IX, recipients of federal grants also have some compliance responsibilities. For example, grantees are required to provide assurances that their education programs or activities are operated in compliance with Title IX. Grantees are also required to designate at least one employee to coordinate their compliance efforts and to establish complaint procedures to resolve student and employee Title IX complaints. Finally, grantees must provide notification to students and employees that sex discrimination is prohibited in their programs or activities. All federal agencies have enforcement responsibilities under Title IX. All federal agencies, including Education, Energy, NASA, and NSF, are responsible for handling Title IX enforcement of their own grantees and may refer complaints against educational institutions to Education’s OCR and employment-related sex discrimination complaints to EEOC. Education’s OCR plays a key role in ensuring compliance with Title IX because it has primary responsibility to investigate most types of complaints at educational institutions, including complaints referred from other federal agencies. Although EEOC does not have any authority under Title IX, it does have authority under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to investigate sex- based complaints of employment discrimination, including sex discrimination against faculty and scientists. Even though Title IX regulations specifically include employment as a protected activity, agencies generally send all employment-related discrimination complaints to EEOC for investigation. EEOC officials told us that they process these complaints as Title VII complaints. As such, EEOC will review referrals from other federal agencies made under Title IX to see if they warrant investigation under Title VII. The Department of Justice (Justice) was given authority under Executive Order 12250 for the “consistent and effective implementation” of several civil rights laws, including Title IX. Specifically, Justice is responsible for the coordination of agencies’ enforcement of Title IX, including (1) reviewing and approving of agencies’ regulations, (2) developing standards and procedures for conducting investigations and compliance reviews, (3) arranging for referral of cases between agencies, and (4) representing federal agencies in court proceedings. Justice consequently published a Final Common Rule in August 2000, which promulgated Title IX regulations adopted by 21 agencies, patterned after the Department of Education’s Title IX regulations. Figure 1 broadly outlines the various complaint processes under Title IX. The four science agencies we reviewed for this request—Education, Energy, NASA, and NSF—award billions of dollars in grants each year for mathematics, engineering, and science grants and projects. Combined, these four agencies awarded almost $5 billion in grants for the sciences in fiscal year 2003. NASA, Energy, and NSF have been promoting scientific and technological research and programs in K-12 schools, higher education, and private industry for decades. Although Education’s mission encompasses more than scientific research, it has several programs dedicated to the sciences. One such program, Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need, provides fellowships, through academic departments of institutions of higher education; these fellowships assist graduate students with excellent records who demonstrate financial need and who plan to pursue the highest degree available in a field designated as an area of national need. This program has designated biology, chemistry, computer and information science, engineering, geological science, mathematics, and physics as areas of national need. This program was funded at over $30 million in fiscal year 2003. (See app. IV for a list of grants these agencies award for the sciences.) The four federal science agencies have made efforts to ensure that federal grant recipients comply with Title IX in the sciences by performing several compliance activities, such as investigating complaints and providing technical assistance, but most have not monitored grantees as required by the law. Agency officials reported that Energy, NASA, and NSF refer complaints involving educational institutions to Education and those involving employment to EEOC, where they are investigated. Because grantees are not required to report on complaints filed with them, the agencies could not determine whether grantees have investigated Title IX sex discrimination complaints they have received. To encourage compliance with Title IX, federal agencies have provided grantees technical assistance and also require an assurance statement from every grantee that it will not discriminate. However, only Education has monitored its grantees by conducting periodic compliance reviews—an agency-initiated assessment of grantees to determine if they are complying with the law. The lack of grantee monitoring was, in part, because agencies have not effectively coordinated the implementation of compliance reviews and, according to agency officials, a shortage of resources to conduct the reviews. Each of the four agencies we reviewed has established a process to ensure that complaints made under Title IX are reviewed and addressed. Specifically, Education officials told us that it investigated or resolved all Title IX complaints it has received involving educational institutions, including those referred to it by other agencies through formal and informal agreements. Excluding athletic complaints, Education reported that it has received over 3,300 Title IX complaints against institutions of higher education since 1993. Some of these complaints were referred to Education by other agencies, including Energy, NASA, and NSF. Education officials told us that they are unable to determine which of the complaints concerned higher education programs in the sciences because their data management system does not track that information. Officials at Energy, NASA, and NSF told us that complaints meriting further investigation were referred to Education if they involved educational institutions or to EEOC if they were related to employment issues. However, officials at Energy, NASA, and NSF told us that they have received very few Title IX complaints each year. (See table 1 for information on compliance procedures required by Title IX.) EEOC also has established procedures to review complaints made under Title IX, but the full number of complaints it has reviewed cannot be determined. Officials at EEOC told us that it has received some Title IX referrals, but since EEOC does not have statutory authority under Title IX, it reviews complaints to determine if Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 applies. Consequently, EEOC does not track which complaints originated as Title IX complaints, and it cannot determine how many Title IX complaints it has investigated under Title VII. Although EEOC investigates tens of thousands of complaints each year, officials told us that they cannot determine if their investigations involved scientists, or one of the four agencies, because EEOC’s database does not track the employee’s occupation or the department in which the complaint originated. While grantees are required to establish procedures to resolve Title IX sex discrimination complaints, agencies could not determine whether they had done so because grantees are not required to report this information. Despite this requirement, there is some evidence that some grantees have not established these procedures. For example, Education recently reviewed the Title IX compliance status of selected grantees and found several instances in which grantees had not adopted or published complaint procedures. Recognizing this issue, Education issued a “dear colleague” letter in April 2004 to its grantees reminding them of their Title IX requirements to establish and publicize complaint procedures. Even if grantees have established procedures to address Title IX complaints, they may not be tracking the complaints they handle. Officials from every university we visited told us that they had an internal process to handle Title IX sex discrimination complaints, but a few were unable to provide us with actual numbers because they do not keep these data.