Melissa Carleton, a higher education attorney, asks whether the department will defer to colleges’ interpretations of the campus crime law.
While it might appear otherwise based on its new, 554-page Title IX regulations, the current administration has attempted to reduce the regulatory burden on colleges and universities. One of the most recent examples of this is the rescission of the 265-page “Handbook for Campus Safety and Security Reporting.”
The latest version of the handbook was released in 2016. It assisted institutions in complying with the Clery Act, a federal law that, among other things, requires campuses to collect information about crime statistics and provide it to students, faculty, staff and the public.
Like much of the guidance the U.S. Department of Education issued in recent years, the handbook had never been put through the notice and comment procedure that applies to federal regulations, and it did not carry the force of law. However, institutions that did not comply with the department’s interpretations of the Clery Act — as detailed in the handbook — were fined for each occurrence. A penalty that started at $25,000 has regularly increased, and today, noncompliance will cost $58,328 per occurrence, making the handbook a reference not to be ignored.