Purpose

To determine if the State Education Department (SED) and Division of State Police (DSP) are complying with the requirements under the Enough is Enough Act (Act). The audit covers the period July 7, 2015 to September 26, 2017.

Background

The Act was signed into law on July 7, 2015, establishing policies to prevent and respond to sexual assault on college campuses and assure students of their right to have sexual violence investigated and prosecuted. The Act amended the Education Law to add Article 129-B, which requires colleges and universities that maintain campuses in New York to implement sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking prevention and response policies, and amended rule 3016 of the Civil Practice Law and Rules to maintain student anonymity. Institutions are also required to adopt an amnesty policy for alcohol and drug use; a students’ bill of rights; and comprehensive training requirements for administrators, staff, and students. Institutions must annually submit to SED their aggregate data on reported incidents of sexual violence as well as their adjudication and handling.

The Act charged SED and DSP with responsibilities to both assist institutions and ensure their compliance with its provisions. SED must receive a copy of relevant rules and policies adopted by institutions and their annual certifications of compliance, and issue regulations on reporting annual incident data. SED must also issue a report to the Governor and Legislature regarding the incident data collected from institutions; audit institutions to ensure compliance with the Act; and post information and statistics regarding institutions’ compliance with Article 129-B on its website. DSP is charged with establishing a sexual assault victims unit to assist colleges, universities, and localities with handling sexual assaults and related crimes; providing training to campus communities; and giving unit staff advanced training in responding to sexual assaults and related crimes.

Key Findings

• SED has made progress in complying with some of its key responsibilities under the Act; however, it has fallen behind meeting or completing others.
• SED's implementation time frames resulted in delays in its meeting certain requirements, including reporting critical incident data to the Governor and Legislature. SED may not meet the reporting requirement until late 2019 – two years later than the Act requires.
• DSP has met its responsibilities under the Act. DSP created a Campus Sexual Assault Victims Unit in December 2015 that has received specialized training; given training to campus communities; and responded to cases of sexual assault and other incidents at institutions or involving college students.

Key Recommendation

To SED:

• As soon as is practicable:
  • Collect aggregate incident data from covered institutions; and
  • Using the information acquired, issue a report on sexual assault incident data to the Governor and Legislature.

Other Related Audit/Report of Interest

State Education Department: Implementation of the Dignity for All Students Act (2016-S-28)