A legislative history of the Clery Act
Origins & Purpose
The Student Right to Know and Campus Security Act (Public Law 101-542) was signed into law by President Bush in 1990 and went into effect on Sept. 1, 1991. Title II of this act is known as the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990. This act amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA) by adding campus crime statistics and reporting provisions for the postsecondary institutions. It requires the disclosure of crime statistics for the most recent three years, as well as disclosure of the institution’s current security policies. Institutions are also required to issue timely warnings when necessary. All public and private Title IV eligible institutions must comply with the requirements of this act which is enforced by the
U. S. Department of Education (ED).
Revisions
This law was amended when Congress enacted the Campus Sexual Assault Victim’s Bill of Rights as part of the Higher Education Amendments of 1992 {Public Law 102-325, Section 486(C)}, giving victims of sexual assault on campus certain basic rights. In addition, institutions are required to develop and distribute a policy statement concerning their campus sexual assault programs targeting the prevention of sex offenses. This statement must also address the procedures to be followed if a sex offense occurs.
An updated version of the law was passed as part of the Higher Education Amendments Act of 1998 {Section 486(e) of Public Law 105-244}. The official title under this act is the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act {20 U.S.C. 1092(f)}. On Nov. 1, 1999, ED issued the final regulations which went into effect on July 1, 2000. The amendments require ED to collect, analyze, and report to Congress on the incidences of crime on college campuses. The amendments also expand the requirement of the Student Right to Know and Campus Security Act of 1990 that all institutions of higher education participating in the federal student aid programs must disclose to students, faculty, staff, and, upon request, prospective students, information regarding the incidence of crimes on campus as part of their campus security report.
The 1998 amendments made several changes to the disclosure requirements. Among these changes were the addition of two crimes (Arson and Negligent Manslaughter) and three locations (resident halls, non-campus buildings or property not geographically contiguous to the campus, and public property immediately adjacent to a facility that is owned or operated by the institution for education purposes) that schools must include in the reported statistics. Institutions that have a campus police or security department are required to maintain a daily crime log that is available to the public.
The Clery Act was also amended in October 2000 by the Campus Sex Crimes Prevention Act (Section 1601 of Public Law 106-386). The changes went into effect on Oct. 28, 2002. Beginning in 2003, institutions are required to notify the campus community where law enforcement agency information provided by a state concerning registered sex offenders who are on campus may be obtained.
Recent Changes
Most recently, on March 7, 2013, President Obama signed the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (VAWA) (Public Law 113-4), which, among other provisions, amended section 485(f) of the Higher Education Act of 965, as amended (HEA), otherwise known as the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act. The Clery Act requires institutions of higher education to comply with certain campus safety and security related requirements as a condition of participating in the Federal student financial aid programs authorized by Title IV of the HEA. Notably, VAWA amended the Clery Act to require institutions to compile statistics of domestic violence, dating violence, exual assault, and stalking and to include certain policies, procedures, and programs pertaining to these incidents in their annual security reports (ASRs).
The first ASR that must include this new information is the one that institutions must provide to students, employees, and prospective students and employees by October 1, 2014. The U.S. Department of Education (Department) published a Notice of Proposed Rule-making including draft regulations that would implement the VAWA changes on June 20, 2014, and expects to publish final regulations by November 1, 2014. Noting this gap, in July 2014, a Dear Colleague Letter GEN-14-13 explaining that institutions must make a good-faith effort to comply with the statutory provisions until the Department has completed the rule-making process and the final regulations have gone into effect.