Virginia Beach City Public Schools failed to properly investigate and document reports of sexual misconduct against students for years, according to a federal review that found the district logged 697 incidents of student-on-student and employee-on-student sexual misconduct between 2017 and 2020 but produced only 12 formal investigation reports during that same span. The findings, detailed in a resolution agreement signed September 14, cover a period when the district treated most complaints as routine disciplinary matters rather than Title IX investigations.
A Massive Gap Between Incidents and Investigations
Among the incidents tallied were 117 cases of sexual harassment, 88 incidents of indecent exposure by a student, eight cases of inappropriate touching or sexual intercourse between an employee and a student, and one forcible rape, according to figures reported by the Daily Press. Despite that volume, the district produced just 12 official investigation reports, a disparity that WHRO reports stemmed from federal investigators finding the district treated most sexual misconduct complaints as routine student discipline matters rather than formal Title IX cases.
Virginia Beach schools also failed to provide notice of case outcomes to both parties involved and relied heavily on school-level administrators, rather than designated Title IX officials, to investigate many cases, per the Daily Press reporting. The review covered the period before the district's current superintendent took office, and before the first Trump administration's 2020 Title IX rule changes took effect.
What the Resolution Agreement Requires
Under the agreement, the district must complete seven regulatory changes to bring itself into compliance, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Those requirements include establishing an OCR-approved districtwide Title IX recordkeeping system, training all staff annually, issuing a formal nondiscrimination notice, and investigating all reports of sexual misconduct even when an accused employee resigns before an inquiry concludes.
Superintendent Dr. Donald Robertson Jr., who signed the agreement, said the school division was already operating in those areas based upon regulations that had been changing over time, framing the agreement as a step that strengthens the district's existing Title IX procedures, per the Daily Press. Robertson was appointed permanent superintendent in January 2024 after serving as acting superintendent since June 2023, following 36 years working in the district, according to WVEC.
Leadership During the Review Period
The 2017-2020 period under federal scrutiny fell under former superintendent Aaron Spence, who led Virginia Beach schools from 2014 to 2023 before departing to lead Loudoun County Public Schools. Spence took over Loudoun after its previous superintendent was fired following a grand jury probe into that district's handling of student sexual assault cases, according to Loudoun Now.
Kimberly Richey said the federal agency was encouraged by the district's willingness to remedy its Title IX violations, according to the Daily Press. Virginia Beach is the fourth-largest school division in Virginia and the 55th-largest in the United States, operating 86 schools and serving nearly 65,000 students, according to the City of Virginia Beach.
Part of a Broader National Enforcement Push
The Virginia Beach agreement arrives amid a broader federal initiative. In July, the U.S. Department of Education had under investigation 20 unnamed school divisions for staff-on-student sexual misconduct as part of a national enforcement effort, per the Daily Press. That initiative, according to the Department of Education, targeted districts flagged by red flags in their Civil Rights Data Collection submissions and focused on preventing so-called “passing the trash,” where accused staff resign without a formal investigation ever being completed.
A K-12 Dive analysis found the Department's Office for Civil Rights entered zero resolution agreements for K-12 sexual harassment or assault cases in all of 2025, making the Virginia Beach agreement one of the first of its kind under the current administration, according to K-12 Dive. The outlet reported that OCR's total resolution agreement output dropped from 518 in 2024 to 177 in 2025.
A Shifting Regulatory Landscape
Courtney Bullard said the federal agency's attention to Title IX appeared to be a sudden pivot, according to the Daily Press. Bullard, of Institutional Compliance Solutions, a firm that specializes in Title IX compliance, training and related services, studied the Virginia Beach situation and said the OCR investigation appeared to have been conducted with unprecedented speed. Bullard added that the timing matters and that the situation is nuanced, since the review period covered years leading up to, but before, the formal adoption of the Trump administration's 2020 Title IX changes.
Those 2020 changes codified the prohibition of sexual harassment and prescribed a grievance process for the accused, per the Daily Press. The Biden administration placed Title IX under review in 2021, and a 2024 regulation later expanded protections against discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. On September 28, the Department of Education rescinded that 2024 rule, reverting federal enforcement to the original 2020 regulations, according to K-12 Dive, after federal courts had previously blocked enforcement of the 2024 rule's expansions nationwide.
Separately, a July federal guidance letter reminded school districts that referring employee sexual misconduct allegations to law enforcement does not satisfy a district's independent Title IX obligation to investigate and reach its own conclusion, according to Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP. That guidance reaffirmed that an employee's resignation does not terminate a district's obligation to complete an investigation and maintain records, a policy historically sidestepped by districts allowing accused staff to resign before a formal finding, per Education Civil Rights Solutions.
