Educational institutions are not required to prove Title IX compliance on a regular basis, said Carlin Hertz, a spokesman for the Department of Education.

The Department of Education and its Office of Civil Rights are responsible for the enforcement of Title IX.

Hertz said education institutions are required to collect statistics on their athletic programs and provide them in an annual report to Education. However, he referred to an Education press release from March 2002 that states the data do not automatically determine Title IX compliance.

Reports are required to be submitted to Education by Oct. 15 of each year.

Title IX is the part of the 1972 Education Amendments to the Civil Rights Act and requires equal opportunity for men and women in education programs.

According to Education’s “Department Policy Interpretation” issued in 1979, schools can prove compliance by one of three ways. They can prove athletic opportunities for male and female students in numbers that are substantially proportionate to the schools respective enrollment.

Institutions also can prove compliance by showing a history and continuing practice of programs for the underrepresented gender.

The third test is for institutions to prove that the interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex are accommodated.

The 1998 Higher Education Amendments required Education to make the information from each institution’s report widely available to the public.

The annual reports must include information such as the total revenue and expenses of both the men’s and women’s teams, the number of participants for each varsity team and whether a coach is assigned a full-time or part-time position.

Information on the more than 1,887 institutions of higher education subject to Title IX is available at the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Web site at http://ope.ed.gov/athletics/.