Top 5 Changes in New Clery Handbook

The Department of Education published an updated edition of The Handbook for Campus Safety and Security Reporting, or the Clery Handbook, on June 23, 2016. The updated handbook contains provisions with respect to, among other things, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 that took effect on July 1, 2015. Institutions are expected to comply with these new requirements in their Annual Security Report this October. The new handbook is similar to the prior 2015 version but includes new examples and expanded explanations of many of the topics based on questions asked of the department’s Campus Safety and Security Help Desk.

As your institution digests the new 250+ page handbook in preparation for this year’s ASR, I wanted to highlight 5 noteworthy changes that merit special attention.

Exceptions to the hierarchy rule have been expanded to include counting sexual assault in addition to hate crimes and arson.
Hate crimes that must be reported have been expanded from six to eight with the addition of gender identity as a category of bias and the separation of ethnicity and national origin as a bias, and expanded definitions for each.
“Your policy statement must reflect what your institution currently does to prevent dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking, and the procedures it follows when one of these crimes is reported.”
Dating violence, domestic violence and stalking are defined. Chapter 8. Chapter 8. Chapter 8.

The new Clery Handbook also specifically speaks to the need for collaboration across campus in compliance efforts, something that I always emphasize to clients, stating:

“Although we address ‘you’ throughout, we want to stress that this is not a one person job…A key ingredient is ensuring compliance is coordination – knowing who does what and when. This means that most of you will find it necessary to coordinate compliance activities with many people and offices in the campus community.”

ICS provides a full range of legal and consulting services for institutions of higher education with a specialization in compliance. We partner with institutions to assist with campus-specific training and policy drafting and review, Clery audits, and defend Office of Civil Rights and other federal investigations and litigation. Our services expand to representation in any legal matter faced by institutions. Contact us for more information on ways that we can assist your campus in its compliance needs.

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