On August 26, 2025, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation requiring that all colleges and universities in New York State appoint a Title VI Coordinator. The new law (A5448B/S4559B) amends Article 129-A of the New York Education Law by adding a new section (6436-a) to that Article. In addition to mandating the appointment of a Title VI Coordinator, the new law requires, among other things, that institutions ensure that there is a process for the investigation and resolution of complaints that may reasonably constitute Title VI discrimination. The purpose of the law, according to Governor Hochul, is to “eliminate hate and bias from our school communities.” It is in direct response to increased incidents of antisemitism that recently occurred on several New York State college campuses. The new law takes effect on August 26, 2026.
Title VI is part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This statute states in pertinent part:
“No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
The statute’s aim is to ensure that certain immutable characteristics, such as race, color, or national origin – including shared ancestry and ethnicity, do not prevent any person from accessing programs or activities from institutions that receive federal funding. In this case, colleges and universities. How will the recently adopted New York law affect students who attend college in New York?
At present, it is difficult to say for sure. Currently all institutions have nondiscrimination policies in effect, but the investigation and resolution/adjudication procedures that pertain to those policies are not uniform. A review of the evolution of Title IX enforcement on college campuses may provide some insight, however. Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 states:
“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
Right away, there are obvious similarities in the language employed by Title VI and Title IX. The most meaningful difference being that Title VI’s scope concerns race and national origin, while Title IX’s scope is related to sex and/or gender. These similarities certainly provide a clue as to how colleges and universities in New York State might organize their Title VI policies and procedures as well as their Title VI Coordinator’s duties in response to New York’s call for a more robust process.
The purpose of Title IX as originally envisioned was to ensure that institutions that receive federal funding treat members of both sexes equally (e.g. the provision of equitable athletic opportunities for students of all sexes). A United States Supreme Court decision, however, subsequently held that among the obligations Title IX imposed upon the institution was the obligation to respond to and remedy known acts of student-on-student sexual harassment (See, Davis v. Monroe County Bd. Of Educ., 526 U.S. 629, 649-50 (1999)). This ruling had the effect of expanding the scope of consideration from institutional policies or practices that discriminated against a person(s) on the basis of sex to an expanded review of interpersonal acts of discrimination, including student-on-student, that occur within the university setting. This concept was communicated to schools, in turn, by the United States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights in their January 2001 Title IX Guidance.
Then, in April 2011, a United States Department of Education “Dear Colleague Letter” laid the foundation for the investigation and resolution/adjudication process that now characterizes the collegiate Title IX enforcement apparatus. Aspects of this process such as the application of the preponderance of the evidence standard and the right of complainants to appeal non-responsibility findings all derive from this letter.
Will the same type of investigative and adjudicative processes that apply in Title IX investigations now apply in Title VI claims in New York State? Time will tell.
