Overview of the Investigation Procedures Manual

This manual provides guidance on the investigation of complaints by recipients of Federal financial assistance. It is designed primarily for investigating complaints alleging violations of Title VI. However, its general investigative guidance may be applied to investigating complaints of discrimination under other grant related nondiscrimination statutes as well. This manual contains detailed discussion of the various aspects of complaint processing and resolution.  However, it is only guidance. For example, the manual suggests timeframes for completion of various tasks of the investigative process. These are only suggestions, and any timeframe contained in a program-specific statute or implementing regulation of any agency would be controlling. The Civil Rights Division hopes to update these manuals from time to time to reflect significant changes in the law.  We will post periodic updates to the manuals on the Internet.

Because of the size of the complaint manual, the appendices have been included as separate files in both the HTML and PDF versions. Links within the main body of the manual in both versions may be used to access the appendices. In addition, a separate download page for the PDF version of the manual is available for users who wish to work with the documents off-line. Finally, zipped versions of the entire documents are available at the last two links.

In using these manuals, remember that they are intended only to provide guidance to Federal agencies and other interested entities, and are not intended to, do not, and may not be relied upon to create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or equity by any party against the United States.

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This page was last updated on April 11, 2002.