Summary of Federal Laws
Financial Aid Programs
Missing Student Notification Policy and Procedures 20 USC 1092 (j) (Section 488 of the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008)
Any institution participating in a Title IV federal student financial aid program that maintains on campus housing facilities must establish a missing student notification policy and related procedures for those students who live in on campus housing and who have been missing for 24 hours. Based upon the status of negotiated rulemaking, it appears likely that this policy will have to be in place by the annual security report distributed by October 1, 2010.
Summary of the New Campus Safety Disclosure Responsibilities: Institutions of postsecondary education that participate in the Federal student financial assistance programs have been required by Section 485(a) and (f) of the Higher Education Act (HEA) to provide the Secretary with campus crime statistics since 1990. The Higher Education Opportunity Act (Public Law 110-315) (HEOA) was enacted on August 14, 2008 and reauthorizes the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended. The HEOA made a number of additions to campus security reporting requirements. This spring, representatives from many postsecondary communities participated in meetings held by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to discuss regulatory language (negotiated rulemaking) and ED expects that language to be issued as a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) later this summer. Final rules will be published by November 1, 2009 and will be effective on July 1, 2010. The link above provides a summary of these rules for planning purposes. DOE anticipates that further guidance will be provided once the final rules have been published. However, institutions must make a good-faith effort to comply with the statute in the absence of regulations and should therefore be gathering this information in preparation for the 2010 report.
Update on status by Susan Hattan of National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) dated 7/9/09
The HEOA regulatory process has gotten started, but the Department hasn’t yet gotten to the point of issuing proposed regulations on the new disclosure and reporting requirements. I’m expecting them to publish proposed regulations for public comment by the end of this month—as they want to have the final regulations in place by November 1.
We do, however, have a pretty good idea about how these proposals will look. Missing persons was among the issues included in the Team V (“General and Non-Loan Programmatic Issues”) negotiated rulemaking discussions. (For additional information about Team V, see: http://www.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2009/gen-program.html.)
Although the negotiators reached agreement on regulatory language for the missing persons requirements, they did not reach agreement on all the issues before them. Had they reached agreement on all issues, then the agreed-upon language would have been included in the proposed regulations that will be published sometime this summer. Because Team V did not reach agreement on all issues, Department of Education officials are free to include different missing persons requirements in the proposed regulations. However, they are not likely to make any significant changes in these provisions. So, you will be able to get a good idea of what will be required by reviewing the agreements reached by the Team V negotiators on this topic. The agreement is available on the Department’s website at: http://www.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2009/gen-3-issues.pdf. (See pp. 98-103 for missing persons.)
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The policy must:
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Inform each such student that such student has the option to identify an individual to be contactedby the institution not later than 24 hours after the time that the student is determined missing in accordance with official notification procedures established by the institution;
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Provide each such student a means to register confidential contact information in the event that the student is determined to be missing for a period of more than 24 hours;
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Advise each such student who is under 18 years of age, and not an emancipated individual, that the institution is required to notify a custodial parent or guardian not later 24 hours after the time that the student is determined to be missing in accordance with such procedures;
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Inform each residing student that the institution will notify the appropriate law enforcement agency not later than 24 hours after the time that the student is determined missing in accordance with such procedures; and
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Require, if the campus security or law enforcement personnel has been notified and makes a determination that a student who is the subject of a missing person report has been missing for more than 24 hours and has not returned to the campus, the institution to initiate the emergency contact procedures in accordance with the student's designation.
The Procedures must:
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Include procedures for official notification of appropriate individuals at the institution that such student has been missing for more than 24 hours;
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Require any official missing person report relating to such student be referred immediately to the institution’s police or campus security department; and
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If, on investigation of the official report, such department determines that the missing student has been missing for more than 24 hours, requires—
(I) such department to contact the individual identified by such student
(II) if such student is under 18 years of age, and not an emancipated individual, the institution to immediately contact the custodial parent or legal guardian of such student; and
(III) if subclauses (I) or (II) do not apply to a student determined to be a missing person, inform the appropriate law enforcement agency.
New page October 5, 2008
links updated 3/19/09 rab
compliance box links updated 6/10/09 rab
updated 6/19/09 to add likely target date for compliance
updated 7/10/09 to add compliance update by Susan Hattan
updated 7/23/09 by mlo to add DOE summary of New Campus Safety Disclosure Requirements
Last Revised 23-Jul-09 12:45 PM.
