Bill Text: NY A00649 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Relates to requiring postsecondary institutions that participate in study abroad programs to report crime and harm that occurs to participating students.
Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 15-2)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-03 - referred to higher education [A00649 Detail]
Download: New_York-2023-A00649-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 649 2023-2024 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY January 11, 2023 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. JACOBSON, FAHY, REYES, DICKENS, AUBRY, STIRPE, WALLACE, HUNTER, SAYEGH, JACKSON, SILLITTI, DURSO, LEMONDES -- Multi- Sponsored by -- M. of A. BUTTENSCHON, COOK, SIMON -- read once and referred to the Committee on Higher Education AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to requiring postsecon- dary institutions that participate in study abroad programs to report crime and harm that occurs to participating students The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as 2 the "Safe Student Study Abroad Act" also known as the "Ravi Thackurdeen 3 Safe Student Study Abroad Act". 4 § 2. Title 7 of the education law is amended by adding a new article 5 130-A to read as follows: 6 ARTICLE 130-A 7 SAFE STUDENT STUDY ABROAD 8 Section 6517. Definitions. 9 6518. Reporting. 10 § 6517. Definitions. As used in this article, the following terms 11 shall have the following meanings: 12 1. "College", "university" and "postsecondary" shall mean any institu- 13 tion of higher education, recognized and approved by the regents, which 14 provides a course of study leading to the granting of a postsecondary 15 degree or diploma. 16 2. "Third party entities" shall mean any for profit or not-for-profit 17 business that is not a college, university or postsecondary institution 18 which provides a study abroad program or coordinates a program between a 19 college, university or postsecondary institution in the United States 20 and a study abroad program. 21 3. "Study abroad program" shall mean programs which are coordinated by 22 college, university or postsecondary institutions and third party enti- EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD02358-01-3A. 649 2 1 ties in the state of New York, that provide students with the opportu- 2 nity to work or study, wholly or in principal part, outside of the 3 United States of America. 4 4. "Study abroad organization" shall mean college, university or post- 5 secondary institutions as well as third party entities that offer study 6 abroad programs. 7 § 6518. Reporting. 1. Beginning one year after the effective date of 8 this article, study abroad organizations shall make and file an annual 9 report to the department by August fifteenth of each year. Such report 10 shall be prepared by all reasonably available data and shall consist of 11 data from the previous two years and comply with the federal health 12 insurance portability and accountability act (HIPAA) of 1996, as 13 amended, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (20 U.S.C. section 14 1681, et. seq.) and all other applicable regulations. Data representing 15 individuals shall be in numerical form omitting personal information. 16 2. The report mandated by this section shall include: 17 a. for the previous academic year, including summer terms, the effec- 18 tiveness of the study abroad program at protecting students from crime 19 and harm, whether changes to such program are needed and how such chang- 20 es will be implemented; 21 b. deaths of program participants including manner of death; 22 c. accidents and illnesses that resulted in hospitalization including 23 the type of such accident or illness; 24 d. sexual assaults against program participants; 25 e. incidents that resulted in a police report including type of inci- 26 dent; and 27 f. with respect to the incidents described in paragraphs b through e 28 of this subdivision, whether the incidents occurred: 29 i. during program participation; 30 ii. during students own time; 31 iii. on campus; and 32 iv. off campus. 33 g. the location of the incident; 34 h. the time of the incident; and 35 i. the date of the incident. 36 3. Study abroad organizations shall also report on ethical relation- 37 ships and conflict of interest avoidance policies with all major part- 38 ners. 39 4. Colleges with enrollments below three thousand will report data to 40 the department to be made available with the institution of reference 41 redacted. 42 5. Study abroad organizations shall include references to the avail- 43 ability of the reports identified in this section on all websites and 44 printed materials. 45 6. The department shall make the reports required in this section 46 available to any state legislator upon request. 47 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
