A Title IX Case and a Criminal Case at the Same Time

A school's Title IX case and a Michigan criminal case about the same events are two separate proceedings. They are run by different decision-makers, apply different standards of proof, and can end differently; the Title IX regulation treats a concurrent police investigation only as a possible reason for a temporary delay in the school's process.^[1][2][3]

This page sets out what the federal regulation and Michigan's criminal rules actually say about the overlap. It also says plainly where those sources are silent. Several common questions about this situation are not answered by the regulation, and this guide does not fill those gaps with general statements.

Two systems, side by side

Michigan's Sexual Assault Benchbook quotes the state Supreme Court's description of how one act can be handled in more than one forum: a crime "is an offense against the public pursued by the sovereign," while a tort is a private injury pursued by the injured party.^[7] A school process is a third forum, created by federal regulation and the school's own policies.

Question	School Title IX process	Michigan criminal case
Who starts it	The school must respond once it has actual knowledge of sexual harassment; written notice of allegations follows a formal complaint[8][9]	For anything other than a minor offense, a warrant or summons may not issue unless a written authorization signed by the prosecuting attorney is filed[10]
Who controls whether it continues	The school must dismiss a formal complaint for Title IX purposes if the conduct alleged falls outside the regulation's definition or program[11]	The prosecutor; a crime victim may not determine whether the prosecution should go forward or be dismissed[12]
Standard of proof	The school states whether it uses preponderance of the evidence or clear and convincing evidence[1]	Guilt beyond a reasonable doubt[2]
Who carries the burden	The burden of proof and of gathering evidence rests on the school, not the parties[13]	The jury instruction in criminal sexual conduct cases speaks of testimony that "proves guilt beyond a reasonable doubt"[14]
Who decides	A decision-maker who is not the Title IX Coordinator or the investigator[15]	A jury verdict must be unanimous[16]
Starting presumption	The respondent is presumed not responsible until a determination is made at the conclusion of the process[17]	See what happens at a CSC trial
Help in the room	An advisor of choice, who may be an attorney[18]	See court-appointed and retained lawyers

The steps of the school process are laid out in Title IX: how a school sexual misconduct case works. The steps of the criminal process are in how sex crime investigations work and the timeline of a felony CSC case.

Does the school process stop while police investigate?

The regulation does not say that it must. It requires a school's grievance process to include reasonably prompt time frames, and it allows "the temporary delay of the grievance process or the limited extension of time frames for good cause with written notice to the complainant and the respondent of the delay or extension and the reasons for the action." Good cause "may include considerations such as the absence of a party, a party's advisor, or a witness; concurrent law enforcement activity; or the need for language assistance or accommodation of disabilities."^[3]

Two points follow directly from that wording. The delay is described as temporary and the extension as limited.^[3] And both parties are entitled to written notice of the delay and the reasons for it.^[3] The regulation does not set a length for the delay or the extension.^[3]

How does a report move between the school and the police?

The answer depends on the kind of school and the age of the people involved.

• Colleges. The Clery Act requires a college to inform victims in writing of their options regarding law enforcement and campus authorities, including the option to notify police, to be assisted by campus authorities in doing so, and to decline to notify such authorities.^[19]
• K-12 schools. If school officials determine that an incident required to be reported under the statewide school safety information policy has occurred, the superintendent or a designee must immediately report that finding to the appropriate state or local law enforcement agency.^[20]
• Children. School administrators, school counselors and teachers are among the people who must make an immediate report to centralized intake when they have reasonable cause to suspect child abuse or child neglect.^[21] When a report or investigation indicates a violation of the criminal sexual conduct statutes, the state department must transmit the allegation or report and the results of any investigation to a law enforcement agency in the county where the incident occurred.^[22]

The routes available to a person deciding where to report are described in options for reporting sexual assault.

What the school process creates: notices, statements and recordings

The regulation builds a written and recorded file as the case goes on.

• The written notice of allegations must include sufficient details known at the time and must come "with sufficient time to prepare a response before any initial interview."^[9]
• Before the investigative report is completed, the parties must have at least 10 days to submit a written response to the evidence.^[23]
• At a college, the live hearing includes real-time cross-examination by each party's advisor, and the school must create an audio or audiovisual recording, or transcript, and make it available to the parties for inspection and review.^[24]
• The school must maintain records of each investigation for seven years, including any determination regarding responsibility and any hearing recording or transcript.^[6]
• The school may not restrict the ability of either party to discuss the allegations under investigation or to gather and present relevant evidence.^[25]

Some material is protected inside the school process. A school cannot access, consider, disclose, or otherwise use a party's records made by a physician, psychiatrist, psychologist, or similar professional in connection with treatment unless the party gives voluntary, written consent.^[13] The process also may not require, allow, rely upon, or otherwise use questions or evidence that seek information protected under a legally recognized privilege, unless the person holding the privilege has waived it.^[26] Separately, a Michigan statute provides that a confidential communication between a victim and a sexual assault or domestic violence counselor is not admissible as evidence in any civil or criminal proceeding without the victim's prior written consent, except as the Child Protection Law provides.^[27]

Declining to answer questions: what the regulation contains and no longer contains

The version of the rule that took effect in 2020 contained this sentence about college hearings: "If a party or witness does not submit to cross-examination at the live hearing, the decision-maker(s) must not rely on any statement of that party or witness in reaching a determination regarding responsibility; provided, however, that the decision-maker(s) cannot draw an inference about the determination regarding responsibility based solely on a party's or witness's absence from the live hearing or refusal to answer cross-examination or other questions."^[4]

A federal court vacated that sentence in 2021, and when the Department of Education restored the earlier regulatory text on September 29, 2026 it stated that it "does not reinstate" it.^[4][28] The result is that the regulation in force as of October 2026 contains neither half of that sentence: not the bar on relying on statements of a person who was not cross-examined, and not the bar on drawing an inference based solely on absence or a refusal to answer.^[29]

What the regulation does still contain on the subject is the retaliation rule. No school or other person may intimidate, threaten, coerce, or discriminate against an individual because the individual "testified, assisted, or participated or refused to participate in any manner in an investigation, proceeding, or hearing."^[5] It also contains a rule on false statements: charging a person with a code-of-conduct violation for a materially false statement made in bad faith in a grievance proceeding is not retaliation, but a determination regarding responsibility, alone, is not sufficient to conclude that a party made such a statement.^[30]

What the regulation does not address

The regulation text cited on this page does not say whether a respondent may decline to answer in a school process because of a pending criminal case, what a school decision-maker may conclude from a refusal to answer, whether a school process can be put on hold until a criminal case ends, or whether and how a prosecutor or another party can obtain a school's interview notes, hearing recording or written determination.^{[29][3][6][4]} The primary sources reviewed for this guide do not answer those questions either, so this page does not attempt to. A school's own written policy may address some of them.

The same caution applies to an employer's internal investigation; see accused of sexual harassment at work.

What Michigan's criminal rules say about recorded statements and discovery

On the criminal side, two rules concern statements made to police and the prosecutor's file. Neither is a rule about school records, and the sources reviewed for this guide do not address how a school's records are treated in a criminal case. First, a law enforcement official interrogating an individual in custodial detention about a major felony must make a time-stamped audiovisual recording of the entire interrogation, including the notification of Miranda rights.^[31] If a required recording was not made, then unless the individual objected to being recorded and the objection was properly documented, the jury is instructed that it is the law of this state to record such statements and that it may consider the absence of a recording in evaluating the evidence relating to the statement.^[32]

Second, the court rule on discovery in felony cases provides that, upon request, the prosecuting attorney must provide each defendant any exculpatory information or evidence known to the prosecuting attorney and any police report and interrogation records concerning the case.^[33] Discovery in general is explained in the sister guide's page on discovery in Michigan criminal cases, and contact from an investigator is covered in when a detective calls about a sex crime allegation.

Contact restrictions during both processes

A school can put "mutual restrictions on contact between the parties" in place as a supportive measure, which the regulation defines as non-disciplinary and non-punitive.^[34] A criminal court may separately make pretrial release conditional on the defendant complying with any condition limiting or prohibiting contact with a named person, and a personal protection order is an injunctive order of the circuit court.^[35][36] The three are compared in personal protection orders for sexual assault; see also bond in Michigan CSC cases.

Can the two cases end differently?

They can, because they ask different questions under different standards. The benchbook explains that a conviction means a fact-finder determined that the defendant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, while an acquittal means that the fact-finder was unable to determine guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.^[2] A school decision-maker instead applies whichever standard the school has stated, preponderance of the evidence or clear and convincing evidence.^[1]

State school discipline law for younger students is covered in K-12 discipline for sexual misconduct, and the comparison with a civil lawsuit is in criminal case vs. civil case.

What people get wrong

"The school has to wait for the criminal case." The regulation lists concurrent law enforcement activity only as an example of good cause for a temporary delay or limited extension.^[3]

"If I do not testify at the hearing, the school cannot use what I said earlier, and it cannot hold my silence against me." Both statements describe the sentence that was vacated in 2021 and left out of the 2026 rule.^[4] The hearing paragraph as it stands today contains neither rule.^[29] A school's own written policy may say more.

"No charges means the school case is over." Charging is the prosecuting attorney's decision.^[10] The school's obligation to respond comes from its own actual knowledge of sexual harassment in its program.^[8]

A checklist of the regulation's protections for a student who has received a notice is in the accused student's Title IX checklist.