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Session 31. The Clery Act and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act: Practical Advice for Non-Campus Safety Professionals. Jessica Finkel and Jim Moore | Dec. 2013 U.S. Department of Education 2013 FSA Training Conference for Financial Aid Professionals. Agenda. Background
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Session 31 The Clery Act and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act: Practical Advice for Non-Campus Safety Professionals Jessica Finkel and Jim Moore | Dec. 2013 U.S. Department of Education 2013 FSA Training Conference for Financial Aid Professionals
Agenda • Background • Clery Act Basics • Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act (VAWA) • Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act • What You Can Do to Help Right Now • Helpful Hints/Best Practices • Resources • Questions
Background • Campus safety requirements in the HEA • Added by the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990 • 1992 Amendments first added policies on sex offenses to the annual security report • 1998 Amendments expanded the requirements and renamed the section the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act) • HEOA in 2008 again expanded the requirements • “Campus SaVE” provisions of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) will be added in October 2014 • Section 485(f) of the HEA; 34 CFR § 668 Subpart D
Background • Federal Student Aid (FSA) monitors & enforces the Clery Act & conducts campus crime program reviews • Possible consequences of review findings: • Fines - up to $35,000 per offense (recently increased) • Limitation, suspension, or termination of the eligibility for student financial aid programs; denial of recertification or revocation of a provisional Program Participation Agreement (PPA)
Clery Basics • The Clery Act requires all schools to: • Collect, classify, and count crime reports and crime statistics • Publish and actively distribute an annual security report that contains all statistical and policy disclosures • Submit crime statistics to ED • Issue Timely Warnings and Emergency Notifications
Clery Basics • Requirement: Collect, classify, and count crime reports and crime statistics • Currently three crime categories (VAWA added a fourth)
Clery Basics • Requirement: Collect, classify, and count crime reports and crime statistics • Schools disclose reported offenses, regardless of whether someone is found guilty • “Reported” = brought to the attention of a campus security authority or local law enforcement personnel • Crimes may be reported anonymously or not, but PII must not be included in your crime statistics • Count both attempted and completed crimes • Make a reasonable, good faith effort to obtain Clery crime statistics from local law enforcement agencies with jurisdiction over all parts of your Clery geography
Clery Basics • Requirement: Collect, classify, and count crime reports and crime statistics • Hate crimes are motivated by the offender’s category of bias • **To be added to the regs (per the Matthew Shephard Act, 2009) • Arrests and referrals for disciplinary action are based on violations of weapons, drug, and liquor laws, not of institution policies • Race • Gender • Religion • Sexual orientation • Ethnicity/national origin • Disability • Perceived gender** • Gender identity**
Clery Basics • Requirement: Publish and distribute annual security report • Must publish the annual security report by October 1 each year • Report must be contained within a single document • Report must include: • three calendar year’s of campus crime statistics • All required current campus safety and security policies and procedures
Clery Basics • Requirement: Publish and distribute annual security report • Must distribute the annual security report to all current students and employees • Directly by mail, hand delivery, or e-mail or • By posting on an Internet or intranet site that is reasonably accessible to current students and employees* • *If you post the annual security report online, you must distribute a notice by October 1 with statement of report’s availability, exact URL, a description of contents, and statement that paper copy is available upon request
Clery Basics • Requirement: Publish and distribute annual security report • Must actively notify prospective students and employees about the availability of the ASR. The notice must include a description of the report’s contents and explain how to obtain a paper copy • Must provide a copy of the ASR upon request • If posted on an Internet site, notice must also include exact URL where ASR is posted • For prospective students and employees, information may not be posted on an intranet site
Clery Basics • Requirement: Submit crime statistics to ED • Institutions report campus crime statistics for the three most-recent calendar years • Must match the statistical disclosures that were published in the annual security report • Deadline for completing the web-based data collection is specified by the Secretary each year – typically mid-October • Collected data are posted on OPE’s Data Analysis Cutting Tool (linked to College Navigator) for public use
Clery Basics • Requirement: Issue Timely Warnings and Emergency Notifications • Institutions must issue campus alerts to provide members of the campus community with information necessary to make informed decisions about health and safety • Two kinds of alerts: • Timely warnings are issued for crimes that represent a threat to the safety of students or employees. • Emergency notifications are issued upon the confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation occurring on the campus that involves an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or employees.
Clery Basics • Requirement: Issue Timely Warnings & Emergency Notific.
Clery Basics • Requirement: Issue Timely Warnings and Emergency Notifications • Include policy statements on both timely warnings and emergency response and notification procedures in the annual security report • All policy statements must accurately reflect the policies and procedures currently used at the institution • FERPA does not preclude compliance with the timely warning provision • Health or safety emergency exception to FERPA allows PII to be disclosed without consent when needed to protect the health and safety of others • Law enforcement records are not protected by FERPA
Clery Basics • Additional requirements: • Institutions with campus police or security departments must additionally maintain a daily crime log • Institutions with on-campus student housing facilities must additionally: • Disclose missing student notification procedures that pertain to students residing in those facilities • Comply with fire safety requirements
Clery Basics • Requirement: Daily Crime Log • Log is a daily record of criminal and alleged criminal incidents reported to the campus police or security department • All crimes on Clery geography or within patrol jurisdiction of the campus police/security department • Not just Clery Act crimes • Records nature, date the crime was reported, time, date, general location, and disposition (if known) of each crime
Clery Basics • Requirement: Daily Crime Log • Log must be available • Must be accessible on-site (written or electronic) • Available upon request for public inspection during business hours (most recent 60 days available immediately; older records available within two business days) • Must be available without payment or written request • Log must be maintained • Must make additions or updates to an entry within two business days • Update disposition up to 60 days from when crime was entered in the log • Schools must archive log for seven years
Clery Basics • Requirement: Missing Student Notification • Include a policy statement that addresses missing student notification for students residing in on-campus student housing in the annual security report • Also include the procedures that your institution will follow if any of those students is determined to be missing for 24 hours • You must give students living in on-campus student housing facilities the option to register confidential contact information • Confidential information must be kept separate from general emergency contact information • Only authorized campus officials may have access to the information • Information may only be disclosed to law enforcement personnel in furtherance of a missing person investigation
Clery Basics • Requirement: Fire Safety Policies and Statistics • 4 components: • Publish and distribute annual fire safety report • Submit fire statistics to ED • Maintain log of reported fires • Conduct safety drills
Clery Basics • Requirement: Publish an annual fire safety report • Must publish annual fire safety report by October 1 each year • Report must include: • Fire statistics • Current fire safety policies and procedures • Annual fire safety report and annual security report • May be published separately or together • If published separately, specify how to access the other report in each one
Clery Basics • Requirement: Submit fire statistics to ED • Must annually submit three years worth of statistics to the ED • Collected in the same web-based collection tool as the campus crime statistics • Includes statistics for each on-campus student housing facility • Statistics include: • Number and cause of each fire • Number of persons with injuries related to a fire that resulted in treatment at a medical facility • Number of deaths related to a fire • Value of property damage
Clery Basics • Requirement: Maintain log of reported fires • Fire log is a record of any fire that occurs in an on-campus student housing facility • Records nature, date the fire was reported, time, date, nature, and general location of each fire • Must be written and easily understood • Annual report to the campus community on fires recorded in the log
Clery Basics • Requirement: Maintain log of reported fires • Log must be available • Must be accessible on-site (written or electronic) • Available upon request for public inspection during business hours (most recent 60 days available immediately; older records available within two business days) • Must be available without payment or written request • Log must be maintained • Must make additions or updates to an entry within two business days • Update disposition up to 60 days from when crime was entered in the log • Schools must archive log for seven years • The fire log may be combined with the daily crime log • Label it well so users know it is both a crime and fire log • Ensure that it contains the required elements for both logs
VAWA • Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (VAWA)(Pub. Law 113-4) • Enacted March 7th, 2013 • Amended the Clery Act • Requires institutions to compile statistics for certain crimes reported to campus security authorities or local police agencies • Requires institutions to include certain policies, procedures, and programs about these crimes in their annual security reports
VAWA • Affects annual security reports and crime statistics reported to ED beginning fall 2014 • ED is in the process of implementing these changes • Until final regulations are issued, institutions must make a good faith effort to comply with the statute
VAWA • Implementation timeline • Spring 2013 • ED gathered public comment and testimony on issues (including VAWA) to negotiate • May 29th Electronic Announcement with preliminary guidance • September 2013 – Federal Register notice announcing single-issue negotiation and soliciting nominations • Nominations were due 10/21/2013 • November/December 2013 – Outreach to stakeholders
VAWA • Implementation timeline, cont’d • Early 2014 – Negotiated Rulemaking Committee meetings • January 13-14 – First round of negotiations • February 24-25 – Second round of negotiations • March 31–April 1 – Third round of negotiations • October 2014 – Institutions complete annual security reports and report to ED using good faith effort • GOAL - Final regulations published by November 1, 2014 • July 2015 – Final regulations become effective • October 2015 – Institutions complete annual security reports and report statistics to ED under final regulations
VAWA • New requirements • Additional statistics • Sexual assault • Domestic violence • Dating violence • Stalking • Prevention programs and awareness campaigns • Victim’s bill of rights • Revises requirements around institutional disciplinary proceedings
Drug-Free Schools & Communities Act • Implemented in 34 CFR Part 86 • Requires institutions to certify that they have developed and implemented a drug and alcohol abuse education and prevention program • The program must be designed to prevent the unlawful possession, use, and distribution of drugs and alcohol on campus and at recognized events and activities • As part of the program, institutions must distribute certain information to students and employees annually • Institutions must do a biennial review of the program
Drug-Free Schools & Communities Act • Annual disclosure • Must share information with current students and employees • 34 CFR § 86.100 outlines the information that must be included: • Standards of conduct prohibiting the possession, use, and distribution of drugs and alcohol • Possible sanctions for violations of Federal, state, and local drug and alcohol laws as well as sanctions for violation of institutional policies • Health risks associated with the use of drugs and alcohol • Information on counseling, rehabilitation, and treatment programs and • A clear statement that the school will impose sanctions on students and employees who violate drug and alcohol laws, ordinances, and/or institutional policies
Drug-Free Schools & Communities Act • Biennial Review • Objectives are: • To determine the effectiveness of your drug and alcohol abuse prevention program • To ensure consistent enforcement of applicable laws, ordinances, and institutional policies against violators • The biennial review report and supporting documents must be maintained by the school and made available to ED upon request
How You Can Help! Make sure that your school has an ASR • Is it accurate and complete? • Was it distributed properly? Review your school’s campus security policies • Do the policies pass the “smell test?” • Use what you know about ED’s standards for policy development Take a look at your school’s crime log • Does your school have one? • Is it accessible to the public?
Best Practices • Appoint and empower a Clery Act Compliance Officer • Develop an understanding of “Clery Geography” • Identify and train “Campus Security Authorities” • Specifically inform students and employees about how to report crimes and emergencies • Check crime statistics for similar schools using the “Campus Safety and Security Data Analysis Cutting Tool”
Resources • The Handbook for Campus Safety and Security Reporting (revised February 2011) • http://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/handbook.pdf • Handbook Help Desk • Clarifications – see 3/26/12 communication https://surveys.ope.ed.gov/security/HelpDeskEmailView.aspx • 1-800-435-5985 or HandbookQuestions@ed.gov
Resources • ED Campus Safety website (includes a training video) • http://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/campus.html • Federal Student Aid Self-Assessment of Clery Compliance • http://ifap.ed.gov/qahome/qaassessments/consumerinformation.html • Federal Student Aid Data Center – Clery Act Reports (see compliance reviews) • http://federalstudentaid.ed.gov/datacenter/cleryact.html
Resources • 5/29/2013 Electronic Announcement with preliminary guidance • http://ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/052913ImplementofChangesMade2CleryActViolenceAgainstWomenReauthorizationAct2013.html • 9/19/2013 Federal Register notice announcing negotiation and soliciting nominations for non-Federal negotiators • http://ifap.ed.gov/fregisters/FR091913NegotiatedRulemakingViolenceAgainstWomenAct.html
QUESTIONS? • Jessica.Finkel@ed.gov • 202-502-7647 • James.Moore@ed.gov • 202-377-4089 or 215-656-6495