Stop Campus Hazing Act: Clery Reporting and Deadlines

The Stop Campus Hazing Act is the first federal law in the United States that specifically targets hazing at colleges and universities. Signed by President Biden on December 23, 2024, as Public Law 118-173, it amends the Clery Act to require every college that participates in federal student financial aid programs to track hazing incidents, publish a public transparency report about organizations found responsible for hazing, and maintain written prevention and awareness policies.¹² The law also formally renames the Clery Act to the “Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act.”

What Counts as Hazing Under the Law

The statute sets a single federal definition for reporting purposes. Hazing is any intentional, knowing, or reckless act committed against another person, regardless of that person’s willingness to participate, that occurs during initiation into, affiliation with, or maintenance of membership in a student organization, and that causes or creates a risk of physical or psychological injury beyond what someone would reasonably encounter through ordinary participation in the institution or organization.³

The law spells out specific conduct that falls within that definition: physical abuse such as whipping, beating, striking, or electronic shocking; forced sleep deprivation, confinement, or extreme calisthenics; coerced consumption of food, alcohol, drugs, or other substances; coerced sexual acts; threatening conduct that causes reasonable fear of bodily harm; and any activity involving a criminal violation of local, state, tribal, or federal law.³

“Student organization” is defined broadly: any group with two or more enrolled student members, whether or not the school officially recognizes it. That reaches fraternities and sororities, athletic teams, bands, student government, and social clubs.⁴

What Colleges Have to Do

The law creates three obligations for every institution that accepts federal student aid.

Report Hazing Statistics

Colleges must collect data on hazing incidents reported to campus security authorities or local law enforcement and include those numbers in their Annual Security Reports, the Clery reports published each fall. When the same individuals commit multiple hazing acts with insignificant gaps in time or location, they count as a single incident.³ Before this law, hazing was not on the Clery Act’s list of reportable offenses.

Maintain Written Policies and Prevention Programs

Each school must have a written hazing policy explaining how to report hazing and how the institution investigates reports. It must also maintain a separate policy on hazing prevention and awareness that describes research-informed, campus-wide programming and primary prevention strategies. Both policies must appear in the Annual Security Report.¹

Publish a Campus Hazing Transparency Report

The most visible new requirement is the Campus Hazing Transparency Report, which must be posted in a prominent place on the institution’s website. For every student organization found responsible for violating the school’s hazing-related conduct standards, the report must include:

The name of the organization.
A general description of the violation, including whether alcohol or drugs were involved.
The sanctions the institution imposed.
Key dates: when the incident allegedly occurred, when the investigation began, when it concluded with a finding, and when the organization was notified.

The report must be updated at least twice per year and stay on the website for at least five years. Personally identifiable information about individual students has to be excluded to comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. A school is not required to publish a report until it has at least one hazing violation finding, and if no new violations occur during an update period, no update is needed.⁴

Compliance Deadlines

The requirements phase in over roughly two years after enactment:

January 1, 2025: Colleges begin collecting hazing statistics.
June 23, 2025: Mandatory hazing policies must be in place.
July 1, 2025: Institutions must have a process for documenting hazing-related conduct violations that will feed the Transparency Report.
December 23, 2025: First Campus Hazing Transparency Report must be published.
October 1, 2026: First Annual Security Report that includes hazing statistics, covering calendar year 2025.¹

How the Law Interacts with State Anti-Hazing Statutes

The federal law does not replace state anti-hazing laws. It supplements them. The statute requires institutions to comply with local, state, and tribal laws in addition to the new federal requirements, and the Transparency Report may include state law requirements or additional context.⁴

A university in a state with its own anti-hazing statute has to comply with both. The University of Washington, for example, uses Washington State’s definition of hazing under “Sam’s Law” when adjudicating code-of-conduct cases, and applies the federal definition for Clery Act reporting.⁴ Harvard University similarly tells students they must comply with both the federal law and the Massachusetts Anti-Hazing Law, which carries its own penalties.⁵ State laws continue to govern criminal penalties; the federal law sets a national floor for transparency and reporting.

Who Pushed the Law Through

The bill had bipartisan sponsors in both chambers. In the Senate, S.2901 was introduced on September 21, 2023, by Senators Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.⁶ The companion House bill, H.R. 5646, was led by Representatives Lucy McBath of Georgia and Jeff Duncan of South Carolina.⁷ The House passed the bill on September 24, 2024, the Senate on December 11, 2024, and President Biden signed it on December 23, 2024.²

The legislation was shaped over years by families of students who died or were seriously injured in hazing incidents, working with organizations including the Clery Center and StopHazing along with national fraternity and sorority trade associations. Those families made repeated trips to Washington to meet with lawmakers, including Senators Klobuchar and Raphael Warnock and Representative McBath.⁸⁹

1
Clery Center. SCHA What You Need to Know
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GovInfo. PLAW-118publ173 Details
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StopHazing. BILLS-118hr5646enr Stop Campus Hazing Act
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University of Washington. Federal Legislation
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Harvard University. About
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Congress.gov. S.2901 All Actions
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Hazing Prevention Network. Stop Campus Hazing Act
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StopHazing. Stop Campus Hazing Act
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Clery Center. SCHA Introduction