Earlier this week the U.S. Department of Education published the final regulations implementing the changes made by the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). VAWA was enacted in Spring 2013, and amended the Clery Act to require schools to compile statistics for incidents of dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. VAWA also requires schools to include certain policies, procedures and programs pertaining to these incidents in their annual security reports.
These final regulations are nearly identical to the proposed regulations that the Department published in June 2014. The Department received approximately 2,200 comments during the public comment period for the proposed regulations. In response to these comments the Department made a few minor changes with respect to schools' disclosure requirements. The Department also added clarification that a school may remove reports of crimes that have been "unfounded." However, the Department clearly states that it believes this would be a rare situation. Even if a school satisfies the regulatory requirements for deeming a reported crime to be unfounded, the school must report to the Department and disclose in its annual security report the number of crime reports that were unfounded and subsequently withheld from its crime statistics.
During the proposed regulations' public comment period, a number of commenters noted the significant compliance burden that the regulations place on small institutions. For example, the commenters referenced the requirement for institutional disciplinary proceedings in the case of alleged dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking. In response, the Department noted that institutions are not making determinations of criminal responsibility but are determining whether the institution's own rules have been violated. The Department further noted that students at smaller institutions should have the same protections as their counterparts at larger institutions. The Department also denied a commenter's request to develop and provide required training at no cost to small institutions.
The Department has published additional resources for schools and students addressing the issues covered under VAWA. The Department created the website NotAlone.gov, which contains resources for students and guidance for schools seeking to implement the changes required by VAWA. The school resources include a checklist for schools to use in creating the policies and procedures for addressing incidents of sexual misconduct on their campuses. The Department also noted that it will be updating The Handbook for Campus Safety and Security Reporting to reflect these new regulations.
Even thought the final regulations are not effective until July 1, 2015, the statutory changes made by VAWA are currently in effect, and schools must be in compliance. For example, schools were required to comply with the new VAWA requirements as they prepared their annual security reports due to be issued to students and employees no later than this past October 1.
The final regulations implementing the changes made by VAWA can be found here.
