Sec. 51.282. POLICY ON SEXUAL HARASSMENT, SEXUAL ASSAULT, DATING VIOLENCE, AND STALKING. (a) Each postsecondary educational institution shall adopt a policy on sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking applicable to each student enrolled at and each employee of the institution. The policy must:

(1) include:

(A) definitions of prohibited behavior;

(B) sanctions for violations;

(C) the protocol for reporting and responding to reports of sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking;

(D) interim measures to protect victims of sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, or stalking during the pendency of the institution's disciplinary process, including protection from retaliation, and any other accommodations available to those victims at the institution; and

(E) a statement regarding:

(i) the importance of a victim of sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, or stalking going to a hospital for treatment and preservation of evidence, if applicable, as soon as practicable after the incident;

(ii) the right of a victim of sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, or stalking to report the incident to the institution and to receive a prompt and equitable resolution of the report; and

(iii) the right of a victim of a crime to choose whether to report the crime to law enforcement, to be assisted by the institution in reporting the crime to law enforcement, or to decline to report the crime to law enforcement; and

(2) be approved by the institution's governing board before final adoption by the institution.

(b) Each postsecondary educational institution shall make the institution's sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking policy available to students, faculty, and staff members by:

(1) including the policy in the institution's student handbook and personnel handbook; and

(2) creating and maintaining a web page dedicated solely to the policy that is easily accessible through a clearly identifiable link on the institution's Internet website home page.

(c) Each postsecondary educational institution shall require each entering freshman or undergraduate transfer student to attend an orientation on the institution's sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking policy before or during the first semester or term in which the student is enrolled at the institution. The institution shall establish the format and content of the orientation. The orientation:

(1) may be provided online; and

(2) must include the statements described by Subsection (a)(1)(E).

(d) Each postsecondary educational institution shall develop and implement a comprehensive prevention and outreach program on sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking. The program must:

(1) address a range of strategies to prevent sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking, including a victim empowerment program, a public awareness campaign, primary prevention, bystander intervention, and risk reduction; and

(2) include providing to students information regarding the protocol for reporting incidents of sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking adopted under Subsection (a), including the name, office location, and contact information of the institution's Title IX coordinator, by:

(A) e-mailing the information to each student at the beginning of each semester or other academic term; and

(B) including the information in the orientation required under Subsection (c).

(e) As part of the protocol for responding to reports of sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking adopted under Subsection (a), each postsecondary educational institution shall:

(1) to the greatest extent practicable based on the number of counselors employed by the institution, ensure that each alleged victim or alleged perpetrator of an incident of sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, or stalking and any other person who reports such an incident are offered counseling provided by a counselor who does not provide counseling to any other person involved in the incident; and

(2) notwithstanding any other law, allow an alleged victim or alleged perpetrator of an incident of sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, or stalking to drop a course in which both parties are enrolled without any academic penalty.

(f) Each biennium, each postsecondary educational institution shall review the institution's sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking policy and, with approval of the institution's governing board, revise the policy as necessary.

Added by Acts 2019, 86th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1078 (H.B. 1735), Sec. 1, eff. September 1, 2019.