Education Department Failed to Collect Campus Assault Data
A 2022 law mandated a national sexual violence report, but the federal government has missed its 2024 deadline.
Updated on Oct. 3, 2026 in Sex Crimes
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The U.S. Department of Education failed to produce a congressionally mandated national campus sexual assault report due in 2024. Despite a 2022 law requiring the tracking of campus sexual violence, the agency has not collected the necessary nationwide data.
Why it matters
Lawmakers allocated $1 million for the survey, a sum experts deem insufficient to cover millions of students at thousands of institutions. Additionally, a lack of oversight from education committees led to significant logistical hurdles and conflicting survey requirements.
The Department of Education has not fulfilled the 2022 legal mandate to design a standardized online tool for reporting campus sexual assault. Currently, only 9 states maintain independent requirements for colleges to conduct their own campus climate surveys.
The players
Department of Education
This federal agency is responsible for overseeing the administration of student aid and enforcing compliance with campus crime reporting laws.
Cornell University
This private Ivy League research university in Ithaca, New York, conducts periodic surveys regarding student safety and campus climate.
Association of American Universities
This organization represents leading research universities and formerly managed a major multicampus survey on sexual violence.
The details
While federal efforts remain stalled, individual institutions continue to gather localized figures, such as Cornell University reporting that 35 percent of undergraduate women experienced nonconsensual sexual contact in 2025, up from 23 percent in 2023. These localized statistics highlight the gap left by the absence of a national, uniform reporting standard required by the Jeanne Clery Act.
Timeline
2019 marked the final edition of the Association of American Universities multicampus survey.
Congress passed the law mandating national campus sexual violence data in 2022.
Cornell University reported undergraduate sexual contact data in 2023.
The deadline for the Department of Education to submit the first federal report to Congress passed in 2024.
Cornell University released updated campus climate survey results in 2025.
Legal Context
This failure to collect data complicates the existing reporting framework established by the Jeanne Clery Act. The absence of federal oversight mirrors a broader legislative trend where ambitious policy goals lack the necessary administrative infrastructure and funding for execution.
The lack of national data means students and parents have no standardized way to compare sexual assault safety across different universities nationwide. Without federal uniformity, families must rely on disparate, self-reported data from individual institutions to assess campus environments.
The takeaway
The gap between legislative mandates and actual data collection creates a transparency void regarding campus safety. Standardized reporting remains an essential tool for institutional accountability, yet it currently depends on a patchwork of state-level policies.
Further reading
For more information on national reporting standards, see our Sex Crimes section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs.
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