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WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (D-MI-06), co-chair of the Bipartisan Disabilities Caucus, and U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) this week reintroduced bicameral legislation to improve responses to sexual violence against students with disabilities. The Safe Equitable Campus Resources and Education (SECuRE) Act makes targeted improvements to the Clery Act to ensure the needs of people with disabilities are included in campus planning and response to incidents of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking.

“Every student deserves to learn and study in a safe and supportive environment,” said Dingell. “Students with disabilities are already at an increased risk for sexual violence and many don’t receive adequate support from their schools after an assault. Campuses must be better equipped to prevent and respond to sexual violence against students with disabilities. The SECuRE Act will ensure every student has access to critical resources and support systems to deal with the horror of sexual assault, and ensure schools can better prevent and respond to these crimes.”

In 2018, the National Council on Disability released a report titled “Not on the Radar: Sexual Assault of College Students with Disabilities,” which highlighted that the needs of students are not addressed under existing college policies for response and support after an assault. This is compounded by an Association of American Universities study that revealed 31.6 percent of undergraduate females with disabilities reported nonconsensual sexual contact involving physical force or incapacitation, compared to 18.4 percent of undergraduate females without disabilities.

Specifically, the SECuRE Act would:

• Require institutions to report how many of the sex offenses, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking incidents reported involved a victim who was an individual with a disability.
• Ensure that campus policies for emergency response and evacuation take into account the needs of individuals with disabilities.
• Require that all reports, materials and information required under the Clery Act be made available in accessible formats and in a timely manner.
• Expand the risk reduction component of prevention and awareness programs to include abusive behavior and attacks targeting individuals with disabilities.
• Require an assurance that campus security personnel and individuals responsible for providing the required information under the Clery Act are trained to work with individuals with disabilities.
• Require institutional disciplinary proceedings to be conducted by officials who receive training on how to work with individuals with disabilities, and that the proceedings themselves be accessible to individuals with disabilities.
• Permit an individual with a disability who is the accuser or the accused individual to be accompanied to any meeting or proceeding by an interpreter or other individual providing communication assistance services, in addition to his or her advisor of choice.
• Require the written notice of the outcome of a disciplinary proceeding be provided in an accessible format if required.
• Require campus policies to include information about the accommodations available to individuals with disabilities with respect to the programs and procedures outlined in the Clery Act.

Dingell and Casey first introduced the SECuRE Act in 2018, following the National Council on Disability’s report.