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The Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice (NIJ) recently released a report on National Best Practices for Sexual Assault Kits: A Multidisciplinary Approach. The report describes a victim-centered approach to sexual assault cases that positively impacts sexual assault response, the experiences of victims, and ultimately results in safer communities. The report emphasizes the importance of victim engagement. The recommendations call for careful, step-by-step medical-forensic examin...

The American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) recently released guidance to its members regarding the use of disciplinary notations on transcripts for institutions that are considering the practice, or are required to do so by legislation. This guidance, drafted by a work group, concludes that institutions of higher education do have the responsibility to notify other institutions of potential threats to their communities from suspended/expelled students and...

Advocates as Campus Security Authorities: Clarification on Victim Advocate Reporting Responsibilities Under the Clery Act  clarifies victim advocate reporting responsibilities as Campus Security Authority (CSA) and how advocates can maintain trust and be a critical resource for students and employees while fulfilling their federal obligations under the Clery Act.

Drawing extensively from the National Judicial Education Program’s publication Judges Tell: What I Wish I Had Known Before I Presided in an Adult Victim Sexual Assault Case , the University of Pennsylvania developed a guide titled Sexual Misconduct Complaints: 17 Tips for Student Discipline Adjudicators, intended for adaptation by individual academic institutions. The guide provides some of the “training . . . in handling complaints of sexual harassment and sexual violence” that the U.S. Departm...

On the week that marked the one-year anniversary of President Obama establishing the White House Task Force to Protect Students, the White House released a document entitled, “Building Partnerships among Law Enforcement Agencies, Colleges and Universities: Developing a Memorandum of Understanding to Prevent and Respond Effectively to Sexual Assault at Colleges and Universities” that provides sample language that may help institutions of higher education and local law enforcement agen...

Safe Horizon, an organization that operates Rape Crisis Programs in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island, created a free booklet for survivors titled “After Sexual Assault: A Recovery Guide for Survivors.” Find suggestions and options for when you or a someone close to you has suffered a sexual assault.

Many parents, schools, and districts have raised questions about this area of civil rights law. Together, these documents will help navigate what may be a new terrain for some. Government resources for transgender and gender-nonconforming students are available on the U.S. Department of Education website.

In addition to the Departments’ joint Title IX guidance, the Department of Education’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education also released Examples of Policies and Emerging Practices for Supporting Transgender Students, a compilation of policies and practices that schools across the country are already using to support transgender students. The document shares some common questions on topics such as school records, privacy, and terminology, and then explains how some state and school dist...

The University of Texas Institute on Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault published its Blueprint for Campus Police: Responding to Sexual Assault. Police officers at all 14 University of Texas campuses will soon be trained to follow the toolkit’s new investigative protocols aimed at changing how campus law enforcement officers interview and support victims of sexual assault. We encourage you to disseminate the report, which can now be found on notalone.gov, widely to any stakeholders who might...

The Stalking Resource Center put out series of resources entitled, “Stalking Response Tips” specified to interest groups who encounter cases of stalking. Each document begins with an introduction on the pervasiveness of stalking and how it affects certain groups of the population and provides details on how professionals can improve their understanding and prevention efforts against stalking.