Education Secretary Betsy DeVos recently caused a firestorm, including some praise, for pledging to walk back Obama-era policies regarding campus sexual assault.

Speaking at George Mason University Law School on September 7, DeVos offered support for the broader concept behind Title IX—that students cannot be discriminated against based on their sex or deprived of a safe, fair education—but then dedicated nearly half of her speech to the issue of people wrongfully accused of assault.

DeVos praised college campuses for “protecting students from sexual misconduct,” according to Title IX provisions, and lambasted acts of sexual misconduct as “atrocious,” but tapped into a long-running debate—enflamed by Obama-era doubling down of Title IX enforcement—about how to investigate and handle allegations of rape and other forms of abuse.

The Obama policies, contained in a 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter penned by Vice President Joe Biden and sent to colleges and universities, were originally seen as a clarification and reinforcement of federal Title IX law regarding civil rights protection for victims of sexual harassment (including assault). To give teeth to the letter, the Obama administration indicated that it would perhaps “withhold federal funding” from organizations that do not willingly go along with its directives.

DeVos blamed the Obama administration for creating “increasingly elaborate and confusing guidelines” regarding higher education institutions now “forced to become judge and jury.” In this hyper-aware atmosphere, DeVos said, everyone—from victims of sexual assault to accused perpetrators—has been “let down.”

“Emotions around this topic run high for good reason,” DeVos told the audience, and asked those present to listen to her ideas and engage in an “open debate.”

Naturally, this kind of rhetoric, which seems to indicate an official statement of sympathy for the small number of people thought to be falsely accused of rape, garnered headlines. This comes just weeks after another Department of Education official, Candice Jackson, told the New York Times that “90 percent” of campus sexual assault allegations can be chalked up to both parties “being drunk.” In her speech, DeVos said that a more zealous pursuit of those accused of sexually violent crime (on or off campus) has led to “kangaroo courts” in some instances. DeVos offered no specific, top-down policy changes. Those are purportedly to be announced after a public input period.

What has received less attention is the importance of Title IX for K-12 students.

Evie Blad, in Education Week, noted that DeVos’s intention to redo the Obama-era approach to Title IX could negatively affect elementary and secondary schools, which she wrote, have “lagged in their responsibilities to investigate assaults.” Blad quoted Neena Chaudhry of the National Women’s Law Center, who praised the Obama administration’s amplified guidelines for dealing with sexual harassment cases. The guidelines have provided greater “clarity,” Chaudhry said, especially for K-12 schools that have “struggled” to adequately handle not only allegations of assault, but the aftermath. That includes a school’s responsibility to “ensure that survivors...are free from fear and harassment from perpetrators.”

Mark Keierleber in the Atlantic recently described two harrowing incidents of mishandled Title IX violations involving “younger victims of sexual violence” from California and Texas, in both of which district officials downplayed or ignored instances of sexual harassment. Their actions resulted in one victim being punished and then transferred to another school along with her attacker, and the other victim committing suicide after being relentlessly bullied for being gay. (There are echoes of this in the Anoka-Hennepin School District in Minnesota, which saw a rash of teen suicides by students who were said to have faced extensive bullying over sexual identity.)

Keierleber’s article states that 137 K-12 school districts across the country are currently under investigation by the federal Office of Civil Rights for Title IX “sexual-violence complaints.” In comparison, 246 higher education sites are now being investigated for similar complaints.

Washington, D.C.-based lawyer Adele Kimmel works with victims of sexual assault, including those who were attacked at school. In her experience, college campuses have typically been farther ahead than K-12 districts when it comes to dealing with incidents of sexual misconduct. This is about more than simply pursuing a legal course of action, she says, because colleges and universities have been quicker to follow other aspects of Title IX guidelines such as the “development of...sexual-misconduct policies and procedures,” along with staff training and direct instruction to students so that they know where to go with their complaints. As the Department of Education prepares to revisit these and other Obama-era, Title IX guidelines—in an atmosphere of stepping back from a more robust enforcement plan—Kimmel worries that “K-12 schools are going to fall even further behind in terms of Title IX compliance.”