the Clery Act: Campus Sexual Assault Reporting and Survivor Rights

When a college sends an alert about a reported sexual assault, that message may be required by a federal law known as the Clery Act.

The law is designed to give students, families and employees more transparency about crime on and around college campuses. It also establishes specific rights and procedures for people who report sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence and stalking.

But the Clery Act can be confusing.

A sexual assault can happen to a student and never appear in a college’s published crime statistics. A school may receive a report and decide that a campus-wide warning is not required. And a college can potentially comply with some Clery requirements while still facing separate questions about how it responded to abuse.

This guide explains what the Clery Act does, what colleges are required to disclose and how the law may intersect with a survivor’s broader legal rights.

What Is the Clery Act?

The Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act is a federal law requiring colleges and universities that participate in federal student aid programs to disclose information about certain crimes and campus safety policies.

Among other requirements, covered schools must publish an Annual Security Report and disclose statistics for specified crimes reported within defined areas known as “Clery geography.”

Those crimes include several sex offenses, including rape, fondling, incest and statutory rape. Schools also report certain statistics involving dating violence, domestic violence and stalking.

The law is named for Jeanne Clery, a Lehigh University student who was raped and murdered in her residence hall in 1986. Her death helped spur a national push for greater transparency about crime on college campuses.

What Colleges Have to Follow the Clery Act?

The law generally applies to colleges and universities that participate in federal student financial aid programs.

That includes a large share of public and private colleges in the United States.

A covered institution has responsibilities that go beyond simply reporting crimes to the federal government. Schools must also maintain certain campus safety policies, disclose crime information to their communities and provide specific information and options to people who report sexual assault and related offenses.

What Sexual Offenses Are Included?

For Clery reporting purposes, schools must track certain reported sex offenses, including:

• Rape
• Fondling
• Incest
• Statutory rape
• Dating violence
• Domestic violence
• Stalking

The statistics generally include qualifying reports made to local police or designated Campus Security Authorities when the incident occurred within the school’s Clery geography.

However, the Clery Act does not count every sexual assault experienced by every student.

Why Campus Sexual Assault Statistics Can Be Misleading

A college’s Clery statistics are not a complete measure of how much sexual violence students experience.

An assault may not appear in the school’s annual statistics because it was never reported, occurred outside the geographic areas covered by the law or did not meet the applicable reporting criteria.

Clery statistics also reflect reports, not necessarily criminal convictions or findings that an assault occurred.

That means the numbers require context.

A college reporting more sexual assaults than another school is not automatically less safe. Higher numbers can sometimes reflect greater willingness among students to report incidents or stronger institutional reporting systems.

Conversely, very low numbers do not necessarily mean sexual violence is rare on that campus.

What Is “Clery Geography”?

The law does not cover every location where a student might spend time.

Colleges generally report qualifying crimes occurring:

• On campus
• In or on certain non-campus buildings or property controlled by the institution
• On certain public property immediately adjacent to or accessible from campus

That geographic limitation helps explain why an assault involving a college student may not appear in the institution’s Clery statistics.

For example, an assault at a privately owned apartment several miles from campus might fall outside the school’s Clery geography even if both people involved are students.

What Is a Campus Security Authority?

Students do not always report sexual assault directly to campus police.

For that reason, the Clery Act recognizes a broader category of people known as Campus Security Authorities, or CSAs.

These can include campus police and security personnel, people designated by the school to receive crime reports and certain officials with significant responsibility for student and campus activities.

When a CSA receives a report of a Clery crime, that information may trigger institutional obligations, including evaluating whether a timely warning is necessary and determining whether the incident belongs in the school’s crime statistics.

What Is a Clery Timely Warning?

When a crime covered by the Clery Act is reported, a college must evaluate whether it represents a serious or continuing threat to the campus community.

If it does, the school may be required to issue a timely warning.

Those are the emails, text messages or other campus alerts that may describe a reported sexual assault, robbery or other crime and provide information intended to help the community protect itself.

A timely warning is different from an emergency notification.

Emergency notifications are generally used when there is an immediate and significant threat to health or safety, while timely warnings concern certain Clery crimes that may represent an ongoing or continuing threat.

Why Didn’t My College Send an Alert?

Not every reported sexual assault results in a campus-wide warning.

A school evaluates factors such as whether the reported crime falls within Clery requirements and whether officials believe there is a serious or continuing threat to the campus community.

That means the absence of a warning does not necessarily mean the institution concluded that an assault did not occur.

Likewise, receiving an alert does not mean a person accused of misconduct has been found responsible.

The alert serves a campus-safety function rather than determining guilt.

What Is an Annual Security Report?

Covered colleges must publish an Annual Security Report, often abbreviated ASR.

The report contains campus crime statistics for the three most recent calendar years along with information about the institution’s safety and security policies.

For survivors and families, the report can provide useful information about:

• Reported sex offenses
• Dating and domestic violence
• Stalking
• Campus reporting procedures
• Disciplinary policies
• Prevention programs
• Available support services

Schools generally make these reports available online.

What Rights Does the Clery Act Give Sexual Assault Survivors?

The Clery Act does more than require schools to publish statistics.

People who report sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence or stalking have specific rights under the law.

Colleges must provide written information about available rights and options. Depending on the circumstances, that may include information about:

• Reporting an incident to campus or local law enforcement
• Obtaining counseling, health or legal services
• Changing academic arrangements
• Changing housing
• Changing transportation or work arrangements
• Available protective measures

Those accommodations may be available when reasonably possible regardless of whether the person chooses to report the incident to law enforcement.

Schools must also maintain policies for disciplinary proceedings involving sexual assault and related misconduct.

Does the Clery Act Require a Survivor to Report to Police?

No. Clery requirements can be triggered by reports made to certain campus officials, and survivors may have access to accommodations or protective measures without making a report to law enforcement.

A survivor’s options can vary depending on which campus office receives the report and what other laws apply.

Clery Act vs. Title IX: What’s the Difference?

The Clery Act and Title IX often overlap, but they are not the same law.

Title IX is a federal civil rights law prohibiting sex discrimination in federally funded education programs and activities.

The Clery Act is primarily a campus safety, transparency and reporting law.

Both can apply when a student reports sexual assault.

For example, both laws address institutional responses, survivor support and disciplinary procedures. But they impose different duties and use different standards for when those duties apply.

One simple way to think about the distinction is that the Clery Act asks, in part, what a college must report, disclose and provide after certain crimes are reported, whereas Title IX asks whether sex discrimination, including certain forms of sexual harassment or violence, has interfered with a person’s equal access to education and how the school must respond.

A single incident can implicate both laws.

Can You Sue a College for Violating the Clery Act?

A Clery violation does not automatically mean a survivor has a damages claim against a college.

The U.S. Department of Education oversees institutional compliance with the law and can investigate schools and impose penalties for violations.

A survivor’s potential civil claims may instead arise under other laws, depending on the facts.

Those could include Title IX, state negligence law or other state causes of action involving sexual abuse, institutional liability or failure to protect.

In other words, a college’s failure to follow Clery requirements may be important evidence about how an institution handled a report, but it is not necessarily the legal basis for a survivor’s lawsuit.

When a College’s Response May Raise Broader Legal Concerns

A college sexual assault case may raise questions beyond whether an annual report was accurate or whether a timely warning was issued.

Depending on the circumstances, a survivor may want to know whether the institution:

• Had received earlier complaints about the same person
• Failed to investigate warning signs
• Failed to supervise an employee or student
• Allowed someone accused of serious misconduct continued access to students
• Failed to provide promised protections or accommodations
• Discouraged or mishandled reports
• Failed to follow its own policies

Those issues can become important in Title IX proceedings, civil litigation or other investigations even when they extend beyond the Clery Act itself.

What If a School Failed to Follow the Clery Act?

Students and others who believe a college failed to comply with campus safety reporting requirements can file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education.

Federal investigations can examine whether a school properly collected and disclosed crime statistics, issued required warnings, maintained appropriate policies or complied with other Clery obligations.

Separately, a survivor considering legal action may want to understand whether state law or Title IX provides additional options based on how the institution handled the underlying sexual assault or abuse.

How to Find Your College’s Clery Report

Start with the college’s campus safety, public safety or police website and look for the school’s “Annual Security Report” or “Clery Report.”

The report should include several years of crime statistics as well as descriptions of the school’s reporting policies and response procedures.

It can also be useful to compare the report with the campus police daily crime log, which must generally be available for public inspection.

The Clery Act Is One Piece of the Bigger Picture

The Clery Act gives students and families access to information they otherwise might never see.

It can reveal patterns of reported sexual violence, explain how a college says it responds to misconduct and require schools to notify their communities about some continuing threats.

But it should not be treated as a complete measure of campus sexual assault or a substitute for examining how an institution responded in a particular case.

For survivors, the more important question may be not only whether the school reported an assault correctly, but what the institution knew, what it did after learning about the risk and whether it took reasonable steps to protect students.

That is where Clery compliance, Title IX and state sexual abuse laws can begin to intersect.

References:

1. U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid, Institutional Reporting and Disclosure Requirements.
2. U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid, Consumer Information and School Reporting.
3. Clery Center, The Clery Act.
4. Clery Center, Title IX and the Clery Act.
5. Clery Center, Frequently Asked Questions.
6. Clery Center, Student Journalist FAQ.