This bill requires colleges and universities to improve their processes for handling complaints about civil rights violations and to be more transparent about their actions.
Student Protection and University Accountability Act This bill requires institutions of higher education (IHEs) participating in federal student aid programs and the Department of Education (ED) to take certain actions to investigate alleged violations of civil rights under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in federally funded programs or activities.) Specifically, the bill requires an IHE to develop specific procedures for investigating Title VI complaints and widely distribute those procedures to students and their families. Among these procedures, an IHE must designate at least one Title VI coordinator and have a system for maintaining records of complaints. The bill makes an IHE that fails to meet the bill's requirements for two consecutive award years ineligible to participate in federal student aid programs for at least two subsequent award years. However, the IHE may regain eligibility if it demonstrates compliance with the bill's requirements. ED's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) must give bimonthly congressional briefings on (1) the number of complaints filed with OCR, (2) how OCR plans to address those complaints and the investigations being carried out in response to those complaints, and (3) data about the length of those investigations. The bill revises the process through which OCR investigates Title VI complaints, including by prohibiting OCR from closing a complaint due to the filing of another complaint involving the same allegations against the same IHE under certain circumstances.
