Quick Hits

• The SCHA requires that higher education institutions participating in Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 programs collect, report, and publicly disclose hazing-related incidents and implement hazing prevention and awareness programs.
• The SCHA also mandates that institutions, as part of their Clery Reports, begin collecting hazing data and statistics as of January 1, 2025, and include, among other items, all hazing incidents that were reported to campus security officers or local law enforcement within their 2026 Clery Reports.
• The SCHA provides the first federal definitions of “hazing” and “student organizations.”

On December 23, 2024, President Joe Biden signed the Stop Campus Hazing Act into law, making it the first federal law to create anti-hazing requirements for institutions of higher education. The SCHA amends Section 485(f) of the Higher Education Act of 1965, otherwise known as the “Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act” (Clery Act). Notably, the SCHA also renamed the Clery Act the “Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act,” evidencing the growth of the Clery Act over the last few decades and its application to a full spectrum of campus safety issues, which now includes hazing.

The SCHA went into effect on January 1, 2025, and focuses on increasing transparency around the issue of hazing on college campuses. It mandates that higher education institutions participating in programs under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 comply with, among other things, enhanced reporting guidelines and hazing prevention education requirements in order to achieve this goal of transparency.

In an effort to achieve its goal of transparency, the SCHA created two new hazing incident reporting procedures: (1) a new “Campus Hazing Transparency Report” requirement; and (2) a new mandate requiring higher education institutions to include campus hazing incidents within their annual security reports (often referred to as “Clery Reports”), as well as information relating to the institutions’ hazing policies and campus-wide hazing education and prevention programming.

The Implementation of Campus Hazing Transparency Reports

The SCHA requires institutions to create, publish, and update Campus Hazing Transparency Reports. The Campus Hazing Transparency Report must be posted on an institution’s website in a “prominent location” and include a statement notifying the public of the annual availability of statistics on hazing, including a link to the same, and information about the institution’s policies related to hazing and applicable local, state, and tribal laws.

Beginning on July 1, 2025, institutions must begin drafting Campus Hazing Transparency Reports summarizing their findings related to student organizations that are found to be in violation of the SCHA. The SCHA requires institutions to publish their Campus Hazing Transparency Reports no later than December 23, 2025. These reports must be updated “not less frequently than 2 times each year” and must include the following information: (1) the name of the organization involved in the hazing incident; (2) a description of the violation; (3) the date of the incident and investigation; (4) a description of the institution’s findings; and (5) the sanctions that were imposed as a result thereof.

Additionally, Campus Hazing Transparency Reports must not include any personally identifiable information (PII) about any particular student, or any information that could reveal PII. Further, information included in each report and update must be maintained by the institution for five calendar years.

New Disclosure Mandates for Clery Act reports

Institutions are currently mandated by the Clery Act to publish and distribute annual security reports, also known as Clery Reports. Clery Reports disclose campus crime statistics and campus security policies. The SCHA requires that institutions begin collecting hazing data and statistics as of January 1, 2025, and include all hazing incidents that were reported to campus security officers or local law enforcement within their 2026 Clery Reports.

In addition, each institution’s Clery Report must include a statement of its current hazing policies, how to report incidents of hazing, the process used to investigate alleged hazing violations, and information on applicable local, state, and tribal hazing laws. A Clery Report must also detail the institution’s hazing prevention and awareness programs.

Implementation of Hazing Prevention and Awareness Programs

In addition to the obligations outlined above, the SCHA also compels institutions to enact hazing prevention and awareness programs in their efforts to prevent hazing. The SCHA specifies that any such program implemented by an institution be “research-informed” and available “campus-wide” to effectively reach students, staff, and faculty. Further, the SCHA suggests that the program include “skill building for bystander intervention, information about ethical leadership, and the promotion of strategies for building group cohesion without hazing.” Therefore, if an institution does not have a hazing prevention and awareness program in place, or such program does not comply with the SCHA’s requirements, the policy must be in compliance on or before June 23, 2025.

In conjunction with implementing a hazing prevention and awareness program, the SCHA also requires an institution to create a hazing policy statement reflective of its anti-hazing policies on or before June 23, 2025. Pursuant to the SCHA, the hazing policy statement must include (1) a “statement of current policies relating to hazing (as defined by the institution)”; (2) the process by which someone may report an incident of alleged hazing; (3) an overview of the institution’s procedure for investigating a claim of hazing; and (4) all applicable local, state, and tribal laws.

Notably, while the SCHA requires institutions to enact anti-hazing policies, it does not specify what information should be included within those policies. However, the SCHA does mandate that the policy statement describe the institution’s hazing prevention and awareness program. Further, the information contained within the policy statement must also be included within the institution’s hazing prevention and awareness program. Therefore, institutions may want to immediately either begin reviewing their current hazing policies and prevention and awareness programs or begin creating policies and programs to ensure compliance with the SCHA’s guidelines.

Federal Definitions for ‘Hazing’ and ‘Student Organization’

The SCHA is the first law to provide federal definitions of “hazing” and “student organization” for purposes of Clery Act reporting. These definitions are important, as they dictate what incidents are deemed “reportable incidents” for higher education institutions to include within their Clery Reports. Because the SCHA’s definitions for “hazing” and “student organization” are broader than most state laws’, to the extent that these definitions conflict with state or local laws, institutions likely should utilize the new federal definitions of “hazing” and “student organizations” when drafting the applicable incident report in order to ensure compliance.

“Hazing” is defined under the SCHA as “any intentional, knowing, or reckless act committed by a person (whether individually or in concert with other persons) against another person or persons regardless of the willingness of such other person or persons to participate, that (I) is committed in the course of an initiation into, an affiliation with, or the maintenance of membership in, a student organization, [e.g., a club, student government, athletic team, fraternity, or sorority]; and (II) causes or creates a risk, above the reasonable risk encountered in the course of participation in the institution of higher education or the organization (such as the physical preparation necessary for participation in an athletic team), of physical or psychological injury.”

The SCHA provides a list of examples of conduct that “causes or creates a risk,” including:

• “whipping, beating, striking, electronic shocking, placing of a harmful substance on someone’s body, or similar activity”;
• “causing, coercing, or otherwise inducing sleep deprivation, exposure to the elements, confinement in a small space, extreme calisthenics, or other similar activity”;
• “causing, coercing, or otherwise inducing another person to consume food, liquid, alcohol, drugs, or other substances”;
• “causing, coercing, or otherwise inducing another person to perform sexual acts”;
• “any activity that places another person in reasonable fear of bodily harm through the use of threatening words or conduct”;
• “any activity against another person that includes a criminal violation of local, State, Tribal, or Federal law”; and
• “any activity that induces, causes, or requires another person to perform a duty or task that involves a criminal violation of local, State, Tribal, or Federal law.”

Further, the SCHA defines the term “student organization” as “an organization at an institution of higher education (such as a club, society, association, varsity or junior varsity athletic team, club sports team, fraternity, sorority, band, or student government) in which two or more of the members are students enrolled at the institution of higher education, whether or not the organization is established or recognized by the institution.” However, the SCHA does not define what constitutes “above the reasonable risk” or what actions establish “an affiliation with” a student organization.

Summary of Critical Reporting Deadlines

Pursuant to the SCHA, the critical reporting deadlines are as follows:

• January 1, 2025: Institutions must begin compiling statistics on hazing to include in their 2026 Clery Reports.
• June 23, 2025: Institutions must publish their hazing policies and prevention programs.
• July 1, 2025: Institutions must have systems in place for documenting violations of their anti-hazing policies in order to include those violations within their Campus Hazing Transparency Reports.
• December 23, 2025: Institutions must publish their Campus Hazing Transparency Report on their website, documenting violations occurring since July 1, 2025.
• October 1, 2026: Institutions must include 2025 hazing statistics within their Clery Reports for the first time.

Key Takeaways

• As of January 1, 2025, institutions may want to begin collecting data for mandatory Clery Reporting. Institutions may want to confer with their campus Clery Act coordinators and other applicable staff to understand what constitutes an incident of “hazing,” how to properly count and document each incident of hazing, and which campus groups constitute “student organizations” under the Stop Campus Hazing Act.
• Institutions may want to complete a thorough review of all current anti-hazing policies and/or enact anti-hazing policies on or before June 23, 2025. All policies are required to comply with the definition of “hazing” as outlined within the SCHA, include information on how to report an incident of alleged hazing, and outline the process of investigating an incident of alleged hazing.
• Institutions may want to update and/or create hazing prevention and awareness programs for students, faculty, and staff.
• Institutions may want to ensure that student handbooks and other institutional documents reflect the SCHA’s requirements and definition of “hazing.”
• Lastly, institutions may want to ensure staff, including campus security authorities and campus Clery Act coordinators, are properly trained and notified of their responsibilities when a report of alleged hazing is made and have established a system for the collection, reporting, and documentation of the required data and information on hazing incidents.