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Dear Colleague:
This letter is to remind you of the various changes to campus security requirements included in the Stop Campus Hazing Act (SCHA), enacted on December 23, 2024, which renamed and amended the Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act (Clery Act), Section 485(f) of the Higher Education Act (HEA). The SCHA included changes to the HEA that impact the required campus security reporting process, through the annual security report (ASR). The SCHA requires institutions to disclose hazing incidents that were reported to campus security authorities or local agencies in its ASR.
The SCHA also
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defines hazing;
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requires that each institution include in its ASR a statement of current policies related to hazing and a statement of policy regarding prevention and awareness programs relating to hazing; and
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requires a Campus Hazing Transparency Report (CHTR) if there is at least one finding of a hazing violation.
There are three new requirements for institutions included in the SCHA:
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Compile statistics on hazing incidents reported to campus security authorities or local police for inclusion in the institution’s ASR. Such incidents must have occurred on Clery Act geography and meet the new Clery Act definition of hazing.
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Implement anti-hazing policies with specific emphasis on hazing prevention programs.
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Compile a CHTR that summarizes findings concerning any student organization that violates the institution’s hazing policy and publish that report on the institution’s public website if the institution identifies one or more hazing violations.
As stated above, institutions must have included 2025 hazing statistics for these incidents in their 2026 ASRs. The Department expects institutions to use the same geographical categories (On-Campus, On-Campus Student Housing, Non-Campus, and Public Property) for hazing incidents in their ASRs and in future reporting to the Department. The Department will begin collecting hazing statistics in the 2027 Campus Safety and Security Survey.
The Department has published updates to the Federal Student Aid Handbook on these topics and also plans to propose regulations that make conforming changes to current regulations on Institutional Security Policies and Crime Statistics at 34 C.F.R. § 668.46.
If you have any questions on the SCHA requirements in the meantime, please email the Campus Safety Help Desk at campussafetyhelp@westat.com or call 1-800-435-5985.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey R. Andrade
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary
Office of Postsecondary Education