Ravi Thackurdeen Safe Students Study Abroad Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1572 To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require additional reporting on crime and harm that occurs during student participation in programs of study abroad, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MAY 21, 2019 Mr. PORTMAN (for himself and Ms. SMITH) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Edu- cation, Labor, and Pensions A BILL To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require additional reporting on crime and harm that occurs dur- ing student participation in programs of study abroad, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Ravi Thackurdeen Safe 4 Students Study Abroad Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:11 May 30, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1572.IS S1572 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •S 1572 IS SEC. 2. APPLICATION OF CLERY ACT TO PROGRAMS OF 1 STUDY ABROAD. 2 (a) REPORTING OF CRIME STATISTICS.—Paragraph 3 (12) of section 485(f) of the Higher Education Act of 4 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1092(f)) is amended— 5 (1) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of subpara- 6 graph (C); 7 (2) by striking the period at the end of sub- 8 paragraph (D) and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 9 (3) by adding at the end the following: 10 ‘‘(E) while a student is participating in a pro- 11 gram of study abroad approved for credit by an in- 12 stitution of higher education, distinguished by 13 whether the criminal offense occurred at a location 14 described in subparagraph (A), (B), (C), or (D), or 15 at another location, without regard to whether the 16 institution owns or controls a building or property at 17 such location.’’. 18 (b) ADDITIONAL REPORTING FOR PROGRAMS OF 19 STUDY ABROAD.—Section 485(f) of the Higher Education 20 Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1092(f)) is amended— 21 (1) by redesignating paragraph (18) as para- 22 graph (19); and 23 (2) by inserting after paragraph (17), the fol- 24 lowing new paragraph: 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:11 May 30, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1572.IS S1572 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •S 1572 IS ‘‘(18)(A) Each institution of higher education partici- 1 pating in any program under this title, other than a for- 2 eign institution of higher education, shall develop and dis- 3 tribute as part of the report described in paragraph (1), 4 a statement that the institution has adopted and imple- 5 mented a program to protect students participating in a 6 program of study abroad approved for credit by the insti- 7 tution from crime and harm while participating in such 8 program of study abroad that, at a minimum, includes the 9 following: 10 ‘‘(i) A biennial review by the institution of the 11 programs of study abroad approved for credit by the 12 institution to determine— 13 ‘‘(I) the effectiveness of the programs at 14 protecting students from crime and harm, and 15 whether changes to the programs are needed 16 (based on the most recent guidance or other as- 17 sistance from the Secretary) and will be imple- 18 mented; 19 ‘‘(II) for the 10 years preceding the date 20 of the report, the number (in the aggregate for 21 all programs of study abroad approved for cred- 22 it by the institution) of— 23 ‘‘(aa) deaths of program participants 24 occurring during program participation or 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:11 May 30, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1572.IS S1572 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •S 1572 IS during any other activities during the 1 study abroad period; 2 ‘‘(bb) accidents and illnesses occurring 3 during program participation that resulted 4 in hospitalization; 5 ‘‘(cc) sexual assaults against program 6 participants occurring during program par- 7 ticipation; and 8 ‘‘(dd) incidents involving program 9 participants during the program participa- 10 tion that resulted in police involvement or 11 a police report; and 12 ‘‘(III) with respect to the incidents de- 13 scribed in items (aa) through (dd) of subclause 14 (II), whether the incidents occurred— 15 ‘‘(aa) on campus; 16 ‘‘(bb) in or on a noncampus building 17 or property; 18 ‘‘(cc) on public property; 19 ‘‘(dd) in dormitories or other residen- 20 tial facilities for students; or 21 ‘‘(ee) at a location not described in 22 items (aa) through (dd) of this subclause, 23 without regard to whether the institution 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:11 May 30, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1572.IS S1572 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •S 1572 IS owns or controls a building or property at 1 the location. 2 ‘‘(ii) The crime statistics described in para- 3 graph (12)(E). 4 ‘‘(B) An institution of higher education described in 5 subparagraph (A) shall— 6 ‘‘(i) provide each student who is interested in 7 participating in a program of study abroad approved 8 for credit by the institution, with a pre-trip orienta- 9 tion session and advising that includes— 10 ‘‘(I) a list of countries in which such pro- 11 grams of study abroad are located; 12 ‘‘(II) all current travel information, includ- 13 ing all travel warnings and travel alerts, issued 14 by the Bureau of Consular Affairs of the De- 15 partment of State for such countries; and 16 ‘‘(III) the information described in clauses 17 (i) and (ii) of subparagraph (A), provided spe- 18 cifically for each program of study abroad ap- 19 proved for credit by the institution in which the 20 student is considering participation; and 21 ‘‘(ii) provide each student who returns from 22 such a program of study abroad with a post-trip ori- 23 entation session, including an exit interview that as- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:11 May 30, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1572.IS S1572 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •S 1572 IS sists the institution in carrying out subparagraph 1 (A) and clause (i) of this subparagraph. 2 ‘‘(C) An institution of higher education shall not 3 disaggregate or otherwise distinguish information for pur- 4 poses of subparagraph (A) or (B) in a case in which the 5 number of students in a category is insufficient to yield 6 statistically reliable information or the results would reveal 7 personally identifiable information about an individual 8 student. 9 ‘‘(D) The Secretary shall periodically review a rep- 10 resentative sample of the programs described in subpara- 11 graph (A) that have been adopted and implemented by in- 12 stitutions of higher education to protect students partici- 13 pating in a program of study abroad described in subpara- 14 graph (A) from crime and harm while participating in 15 such program of study abroad.’’. 16 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:11 May 30, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1572.IS S1572 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS