Education Law Review - Providing education law and policy information and analysis

The Senate began consideration last week of S. 649, the Safe Communities, Safe Schools Act of 2013, with debate continuing in the coming week.  Though not as high profile as background checks and other provisions, Title III of the legislation will be of interest to elementary and secondary schools, as well as institutions of higher education. 

Title III, known as the "School and Campus Safety Enhancements Act," authorizes the establishment of an inter-agency task force to develop advisory school safety guidelines.  The bill also amends a current Department of Justice grant program to authorize $40 million for school safety grants, adding allowable uses of funds for surveillance equipment and hotlines for reporting potentially dangerous students.

Section 305 authorizes sub-awards to colleges and universities and nonprofits to assist what would be a newly-authorized National Center for Campus Public Safety.  The Center's activities would include education and training of public safety personnel of institutions of higher education, research, a clearinghouse for policies, procedures and best practices, the promotion of effective behavioral threat assessment and management models to prevent campus violence, and related.  

Amendments are expected, but likely on the bigger ticket, non-education items.

On Wednesday, March 13, 2013 at 10:00 a.m. the House Committee on Education and the Workforce will hold a hearing on ways to strengthen federal student loan programs authorized under Title IV of the Higher Education Act.

Witnesses include Dr. Deborah Lucas of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Jason Delisle of the Federal Education Budget Project of the New America Foundation, Justin Draeger of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, and Dr. Charmaine Mercer of the Alliance for Excellent Education.

The hearing will be held in room 2175, Rayburn House Office Building, and available via a live webcast from the committee's web page.      

Last week the U.S. House of Representatives passed S.47, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 ("Act") after the bill cleared the Senate earlier in February. Given the Act will soon be signed into law, institutions of higher education should take note, if not already, of several significant amendments to the Jeanne Clery Act (Section 485(f) of the Higher Education Act of 1965; 20 USC 1092(f)) in the bill.  See pages 36-39 of the House-passed legislation.  

As a threshold matter, the changes impact the preparation of the annual security report that institutions of higher education must publish and distribute by October 1 of each year on crime statistics and campus security policies.  Colleges and universities will be required to add to their reporting requirements "domestic violence, dating violence and stalking incidents that were reported to campus security authorities or local police agencies."

Institutions must also report whether a victim was "intentionally selected because of the actual or perceived . . . national origin [or] gender identity . . . of the victim."  These two categories (national origin and gender identity) are in addition to the current categories of actual or perceived race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity or disability of the victim.

As a part of the annual security report, a school must include a much more expansive and prescriptive statement of policy, including among other things, the institution's programs to prevent domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking, as well as procedures the institution will follow (and standard of evidence used) during any institutional proceedings arising from a report of such incidents.

The changes to the Clery Act "shall take effect with respect to the annual security report . . . 1 calendar year after the date of enactment of this Act, and each subsequent calendar year." Assuming the President signs the law in March 2013, under one reading it appears the annual security report due by October 1, 2014 (covering calendar years 2011, 2012, 2013) must include the new data and policies.  Alternatively, it could mean the security report due by October 1, 2015 for the calendar years 2012, 2013, 2014 must include the new data and policies, thus allowing adequate time for implementation. The Department of Education should issue guidance very soon after enactment to provide clarity.  

Updates on my earlier post (February 20) on school safety:  The House Education and Workforce Committee hearing set for Wednesday, February 27, 2013 will focus on school safety in the aftermath of the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut.  

Witnesses will include Bill Bond--School Safety Specialist with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (KY), Mo Canady--Executive Director of the National Association of School Resource Officers (AL), Vincent Pompei--a School Counselor with the Val Verde Unified School District (CA), Brett Bontrager--Senior Vice President and Group Executive with Stanley Black & Decker (IN), David Osher--Vice President of the American Institutes for Research (DC), and Frederick Ellis--Director of the Office of Safety and Security at the Fairfax County Public Schools (VA).  The new time for the hearing is 12:30 p.m. in Room 2175 Rayburn.     

In its policy plan released after the State of the Union message, the Obama Administration intends to leverage federal student aid and the accreditation process to control the price of tuition and student outcomes in higher education.  The release--"The President's Plan for a Strong Middle Class & Strong America"--consists of eight pages of bullet points on initiatives of the second term.

On higher education, the plan seeks to link "value, affordability, and student outcomes . . . [to] determinations about which colleges and universities receive access to federal student aid." This will be done either by "incorporating measures of value and affordability into the existing accreditation system[,][] or by establishing a new, alternative system of accreditation . . . [for receipt of] federal student aid based on performance and results." The plan re-opens the issue of the reach of the federal government into historically non-governmental functions.  

At the K-12 level, when the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) did not get reauthorized, the Administration proceeded to issue legally questionable conditional waivers. Just last week Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions questioned the authority for the conditions in a hearing on waivers.  

Whether executive action will be invoked to force changes in tuition or a school's eligibility for Title IV student aid remains an open question.  Colleges, universities, and accreditors should remain alert.