What is the Clery Act?

The Clery Act is the landmark federal law that requires colleges and universities across the United States to disclose information about crime on and around their campuses. Tied to an institution's participation in federal student financial aid programs, the Clery Act is enforced by the United States Department of Education. It requires colleges and universities to compile and publish statistics for crimes on or near their campuses and requires those identified as Campus Security Authorities to report crime statistics for annual submission to the Department of Education and inclusion in the University's Annual Security Report.

More Information about the Clery Act
The Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990, known as the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act), is a Federal Law enacted in 1990 that requires colleges and universities across the United States to disclose information about crime on and around their campuses. Under the watchful eye of the U.S. Department of Education, all post-secondary institutions participating in Title IV student financial aid programs are required to comply with this Act to avoid being penalized with significant fines and suspension from participation in Title IV programs.

The Clery Act provides students and families, as higher education consumers, with information they need to make informed decisions about college choice. The Clery Act was signed in 1990 and is named after 19-year-old Jeanne Clery, who was raped and murdered in her Lehigh University residence hall in 1986. Clery's parents lobbied Congress to enact the law when they discovered students at Lehigh hadn't been notified about 38 violent crimes that had occurred on campus in the three years prior to Clery's murder.

The Clery Act requires Kutztown University (KU) to provide timely warnings of crimes that represent a threat to the safety of students or employees and to make their campus security policies available to the public. The Act also requires KU to collect, classify, report, and disseminate crime data to everyone on campus and to the U.S. Department of Education annually.

For more information on the Clery Act, please visit clerycenter.org.