The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (the Clery Act)

The Clery Act, found in section 485(f) of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA), requires IHEs that participate in the Title IV HEA federal student financial assistance programs to disclose campus crime statistics and security information.¹ Among other things, the Clery Act requires IHEs to provide timely warnings to the campus community of certain crimes reported to campus security authorities that represent a threat to students and employees, and to maintain a log of crimes reported to the campus police or security department. In addition, IHEs must include in their annual security report, a statement of policy regarding the institution’s emergency response and evacuation procedures. This requirement complements and supports the importance of clearly delineating the responsibilities of individuals involved during an emergency response, the need to develop and implement notification and communication strategies to share information with the campus community, the imperative of testing and practicing a higher ed EOP, and the importance of keeping the community informed of current policies and procedures.

Generally, the requirements under the Clery Act fall into three categories:

1. Reporting crime statistics and disclosing security-related policies
   1. Every IHE must collect, classify, and count reported crimes and disclose crime statistics for certain crimes to the campus community and the public (through the U.S. Department of Education’s campus security website).

Crimes Reported Under the Clery Act

2. 1. Under certain circumstances an IHE must issue a campus alert to provide members of the campus community with information necessary to make informed decisions about their health and safety. There are two kinds of alerts under the Clery Act:
      1. Timely warnings are issued for certain crimes that represent a threat to the safety of students or employees.
      2. 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.
   2. Every IHE must publish an annual security report that contains safety- and security-related policy statements and crime statistics, and distribute it to all current students and employees. IHEs also must inform prospective students and employees about the availability of the report.
   3. Every IHE must submit crime statistics to the U.S. Department of Education annually. Those statistics are available to the public via College Navigator as well as via the Office of Postsecondary Education’s Campus Safety and Security Data Analysis Cutting Tool.
       
3. Maintaining a crime log at IHEs that have a campus police or security department. IHEs that maintain a campus police or security department must keep a daily crime log of reported crimes that is open to public inspection.


4. Disclosing missing student notification and fire-safety requirements for IHEs that have any on-campus student housing facility
   1. IHEs with on-campus student housing facilities must disclose missing student notification procedures that pertain to students residing in those facilities.
   2. IHEs with on-campus student housing facilities must disclose fire safety information related to those facilities. IHEs must provide this information to students and employees, and potential students and employees, in the same manner as they disclose crime information under the Clery Act.² These IHEs must
      1. Keep a fire log that is open for public inspection;
      2. Publish an annual fire safety report with policy statements and fire statistics associated with each on-campus student housing facility, provide students and employees with the report, and inform prospective students and employees of the availability of the report; and
      3. Submit fire statistics to the U.S. Department of Education annually.

As part of the emergency planning process, it is critical that IHEs take the time to review and understand all the Clery Act requirements. We focus on two of those requirements: timely warnings and emergency notifications. The U.S. Department of Education’s Handbook for Campus Safety and Security Reporting details all of the Clery Act requirements in depth and provides sample policy statements, diagrams, and other helpful aids for IHEs in complying with this statute.

Timely Warnings
The Clery Act requires IHEs to alert the campus community to certain crimes that are reported to campus security authorities or local police agencies, and are considered by the IHE to represent a threat to students and employees. These alerts must be done in a manner that is timely and that will aid in the prevention of such crimes. The Clery Act does not include a specific definition of “timely”. However, the intent of a timely warning is to enable people to protect themselves; therefore, warnings should be issued as soon as pertinent information is available. The decision to issue a timely warning should be made on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the nature of the crime, the danger to the campus community, and the possible risk of compromising law enforcement efforts.

An IHE must include in the annual security report a policy statement that accurately reflects the institution’s timely warning policy and practice. The policy should specify the circumstances under which the IHE will issue a timely warning, how those timely warnings will be distributed, and the individual or office responsible for issuing a timely warning. IHEs must take appropriate steps to ensure that timely warnings are communicated to individuals with disabilities, including those who have hearing or vision disabilities, as effectively as they are to others.

Emergency Notification
IHEs must also develop and disclose emergency response and evacuation procedures, including emergency notification procedures that describe their response to significant

emergency or dangerous situations involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or employees occurring on the campus.³ This requirement is intended to ensure that an IHE has sufficiently prepared for an emergency situation on campus, has tested those procedures to identify and improve on weaknesses, and has considered how it will inform the campus community and other individuals, such as parents and guardians.

IHEs must include a policy statement in their annual security reports that accurately reflect their emergency response and evacuation procedures. This policy statement must include

• The procedures the IHE will use to immediately notify the campus community upon the confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or staff occurring on the campus, unless issuing a notification will compromise efforts to contain the emergency;
• A description of the process the IHE will use to confirm that there is a significant emergency or dangerous situation, determine the appropriate segment or segments of the campus community to receive a notification, determine the content of the notification, and initiate the notification system;
• A statement that the IHE will, without delay and taking into account the safety of the community, determine the content of the notification and initiate the notification system, unless issuing a notification will, in the professional judgment of responsible authorities, compromise efforts to assist a victim or to contain, respond to, or otherwise mitigate the emergency;
• A list of the titles of the person(s) or organization(s) responsible for carrying out the actions described above;
• The IHE’s procedures for disseminating emergency information to the larger community; and
• The IHE’s procedures to test the emergency response and evacuation procedures on at least an annual basis.

In addition, the IHE should take steps to ensure the emergency notification planning, testing, and implementation will provide such notifications and related information to individuals with disabilities, including those with vision or hearing disabilities, as effectively as they are provided to others.

Testing a higher ed EOP is critical to the successful implementation of the appropriate course of action during an emergency situation. The Clery Act provides flexibility to IHEs in designing their tests and does not prescribe a particular type that must be used. These tests may be announced or unannounced, but IHEs must publicize their emergency response and evacuation procedures in conjunction with at least one test per calendar year. They must also document, for each test, a description of the exercise, the date and time of the exercise, and whether it was announced or unannounced.

Emergency Notification and Timely Warning: Sorting Out the Differences