VAWA 2022 Domestic Violence Definition Doesn’t Apply to Title IX or Clery Act
On June 10th the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in correspondence to SAFE Campuses, LLC clarified to us that schools could use the definitions of “domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking” found in Clery Act regulations from 2015 to comply with their obligations under Title IX. Because the definition of domestic violence was expanded to include non-violent offenses by the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2022 (VAWA 2022) some have found this confusing.
However, the 2024 Title IX Rule preamble explains that the expanded definition of domestic violence applies only to VAWA grant recipients:
The second part of the VAWA 2022 definition begins with “in the case of victim services,” and victim services is a defined term in VAWA 2022 that refers to specific victim services funded and made available under VAWA that are not available under Title IX. In addition, the definitions in VAWA 2022 are applicable for purposes of grants authorized under VAWA and Title IX implementation is not a grant program authorized under VAWA. Therefore, the Department was not legally obligated to incorporate the entire VAWA 2022 definition into the Title IX regulations and determined that including the reference to victim services and the language that follows it from the VAWA 2022 definition of domestic violence in the Title IX regulations would create confusion for recipients.
While consistent with VAWA 2022 the new Title IX definition omits “of violence”, verbiage which remains in the Clery definition, as explained in the preamble statement above it doesn’t actually add any non-violent offenses. The Department also expressly states “the definition of domestic violence in these final regulations is not the same as the definition of domestic violence in VAWA 2022.”
Although not expressly addressed, this also explains why the existing Clery regulatory definition of domestic violence which is tied to the VAWA statutory definition remains valid. The addition of the non-violent offenses only applies to VAWA grant recipients and is therefore not applicable in a Clery context. Finally, as OCR reminded institutions covered by Clery they “must adopt the definitions as they appear in the Clery Act regulations and that they cannot modify or replace the definitions through adjustments to their policies and procedures.”
I offer special thanks to Leigh Parker, one of our Title IX Consultants, for her help analyzing this complex issue.
This blog does not provide legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. If you need legal advice, please contact an attorney directly.
