Clery Act Legislative History (1989-2000)

The "Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act" (originally known as the "Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990") requires colleges and universities to disclose campus crime information that before it was enacted many schools had been able to keep secret. It is a federal law that applies to all institutions of higher education, both public and private, in the United States which participate in federal student aid programs.

The "Clery Act" is named in memory of 19 year old Lehigh University freshman Jeanne Ann Clery (pictured left) who was assaulted and murdered while asleep in her residence hall room on April 5, 1986. She was killed by another student she didn't know who had entered her residence hall through a "propped open" door to burglarize his fellow students' rooms.

Jeanne's parents, Connie and Howard, led the crusade to enact the original "Campus Security Act" after they discovered that students hadn't been told about 38 violent crimes on the Lehigh campus in the three years preceding her murder. They began by getting a campus crime reporting law enacted in their home state of Pennsylvania before joining with other campus crime victims to set their sights on a national law.

The "Clery Bill" (H.R.3344, S.1925, S.1930) was introduced in Congress on September 6, 1989, and was signed into law on November 8, 1990 by President George Bush as Title 2 of the "Student Right-To-Know and Campus Security Act." It took effect September 1, 1991 and the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) was charged with enforcing the law. For the first time institutions of higher education across the country had to release campus crime statistics and security policies to their current and prospective students or employees.

The law was amended in 1992 to include specific basic rights that schools were required to afford to survivors of sexual assaults, especially student-on-student assaults or date-rapes. The provisions of this amendment the "Campus Sexual Assault Victims' Bill of Rights" were incorporated into the required policy disclosures.

Amendments in 1998 added new categories to the crime statistics, an obligation to report statistics for public property in and immediately adjacent to the campus, a geographic breakdown of statistics, and a daily public crime log for schools with a police or security department. The law was also amended to require the DOE to centrally collect the crime statistics and make them publicly available.

These amendments also formally named the law in memory of Jeanne Clery. They were signed into law on October 7, 1998 by President Bill Clinton as a part of the "Higher Education Amendments Of 1998." The law was most recently amended in 2000 to require schools beginning in 2003 to notify the campus community about where public "Megan's Law" information about registered sex offenders on campus could be obtained.

The current regulations permit schools to comply with their disclosure obligations by posting information to a web site as long as paper copies are made available upon request. The DOE can fine schools up to $27,500 per violation or suspend them from student aid programs.

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