II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 163
To require institutions of higher education participating in Federal student
aid programs to share information about title VI of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964, including a link to the webpage of the Office for Civil
Rights where an individual can submit a complaint regarding discrimina-
tion in violation of such title, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY21, 2025
Mr. C
ASSIDY(for himself and Mr. FETTERMAN) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Edu-
cation, Labor, and Pensions
A BILL
To require institutions of higher education participating in
Federal student aid programs to share information about
title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, including a
link to the webpage of the Office for Civil Rights where
an individual can submit a complaint regarding discrimi-
nation in violation of such title, 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 ‘‘Protecting Students 4
on Campus Act of 2025’’. 5
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SEC. 2. TITLE VI AWARENESS CAMPAIGN. 1
(a) T
ITLEVI AWARENESSCAMPAIGN.— 2
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary of Education, 3
acting through the Assistant Secretary for Civil 4
Rights of the Department of Education, shall carry 5
out a public awareness campaign regarding the 6
availability of rights provided to individuals under 7
title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 8
2000d et seq.). 9
(2) A
WARENESS CAMPAIGN .—The public aware-10
ness campaign shall include appealing visual and au-11
ditory elements and shall be updated annually and 12
distributed to institutions of higher education for 13
physical posting in 1 or more high traffic public 14
places, such as student centers, and digital posting 15
on 1 or more high traffic institution web pages, such 16
as student services. The campaign shall utilize such 17
methods and materials as necessary to maximize 18
student accessibility. 19
(3) A
BILITY TO CONTRACT .—The Secretary 20
may carry out this subsection directly or through a 21
contract with a nonprofit organization that special-22
izes in public awareness communications. 23
(b) HEA A
MENDMENTS.—Section 487(a) of the 24
Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1094(a)) is 25
amended by adding at the end the following: 26
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‘‘(30) The institution— 1
‘‘(A) has prominently displayed on the 2
homepage of the institution a link to the 3
webpage of the Office for Civil Rights of the 4
Department of Education where an individual 5
can submit a complaint regarding discrimina-6
tion on the basis of race, color, or national ori-7
gin in violation of title VI of the Civil Rights 8
Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000d et seq.); and 9
‘‘(B) will annually display and post the 10
public awareness campaign materials created 11
and distributed under section 2(a) of the Pro-12
tecting Students on Campus Act of 2025 in 13
high traffic public places on campus, such as 14
student centers, and high traffic institution web 15
pages, such as student services.’’. 16
SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFINGS. 17
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Beginning not later than 30 days 18
after the date of enactment of this Act and ending 1 year 19
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Assistant Sec-20
retary for Civil Rights of the Department of Education 21
shall give a monthly briefing to Congress— 22
(1) explaining the number of complaints that 23
the Office for Civil Rights of the Department of 24
Education (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Office’’) 25
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has received in the previous month regarding dis-1
crimination on the basis of race, color, or national 2
origin in violation of title VI of the Civil Rights Act 3
of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000d et seq.), disaggregated by 4
the basis of discrimination; 5
(2) describing how the Office plans to address 6
those complaints and the investigations opened in re-7
sponse to those complaints; and 8
(3) providing data about the length of time that 9
those complaints remain open after being received by 10
the Office. 11
(b) R
EPORT.—Not later than 48 hours prior to each 12
briefing described in subsection (a), the Assistant Sec-13
retary for Civil Rights of the Department of Education 14
shall provide a written report to Congress that contains 15
the information that will be presented at the next briefing, 16
in a manner that protects personally identifiable informa-17
tion in accordance with applicable privacy laws. 18
SEC. 4. AUDIT AND STUDY. 19
(a) R
EQUIREMENTTOSUBMITDATA.—Each institu-20
tion of higher education receiving Federal funds shall sub-21
mit an annual report to the Inspector General of the De-22
partment of Education that includes— 23
(1) the number of complaints regarding dis-24
crimination on the basis of race, color, or national 25
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origin in violation of title VI of the Civil Rights Act 1
of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000d et seq.) that were sub-2
mitted to the institution in the previous year; 3
(2) an analysis of the number of such com-4
plaints and their substance; and 5
(3) a narrative of the action the institution took 6
with respect to such complaints. 7
(b) A
UDIT.—The Inspector General of the Depart-8
ment of Education shall complete an annual audit of the 9
institutions of higher education that are in the top 5 per-10
cent of institutions based on the per capita number of 11
complaints described in subsection (a) received by the in-12
stitutions, controlling for student population, to examine 13
the process for addressing such complaints and the need 14
for any referrals to the Office for Civil Rights of the De-15
partment of Education. 16
(c) S
TUDY.—The Inspector General of the Depart-17
ment of Education shall conduct a study— 18
(1) regarding why there is a disparity between 19
the complaints regarding discrimination on the basis 20
of race, color, or national origin in violation of title 21
VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000d 22
et seq.) that are submitted to institutions of higher 23
education and such complaints that are submitted to 24
the Office; and 25
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(2) quantifying the distinction described in 1
paragraph (1). 2
SEC. 5. OCR PROCESS REFORMS. 3
The Office for Civil Rights of the Department of 4
Education shall not close or dismiss any complaint due 5
to resolution by another Federal, State, or local civil rights 6
enforcement agency or through a recipient’s internal griev-7
ance procedures. 8
Æ
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