§ 14043c-3. Grants to combat domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking in middle and high schools

(a) Short title

This section may be cited as the “Supporting Teens through Education and Protection Act of 2005” or the “STEP Act”.

(b) Grants authorized

The Attorney General, through the Director of the Office on Violence Against Women, is authorized to award grants to middle schools and high schools that work with domestic violence and sexual assault experts to enable the schools—

(1) to provide training to school administrators, faculty, counselors, coaches, healthcare providers, security personnel, and other staff on the needs and concerns of students who experience domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking, and the impact of such violence on students;

(2) to develop and implement policies in middle and high schools regarding appropriate, safe responses to, and identification and referral procedures for, students who are experiencing or perpetrating domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking, including procedures for handling the requirements of court protective orders issued to or against students or school personnel, in a manner that ensures the safety of the victim and holds the perpetrator accountable;

(3) to provide support services for students and school personnel, such as a resource person who is either on-site or on-call, and who is an expert described in subsections (i)(2) and (i)(3) of this section, for the purpose of developing and strengthening effective prevention and intervention strategies for students and school personnel experiencing domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault or stalking;

(4) to provide developmentally appropriate educational programming to students regarding domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking, and the impact of experiencing domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking on children and youth by adapting existing curricula activities to the relevant student population;

(5) to work with existing mentoring programs and develop strong mentoring programs for students, including student athletes, to help them understand and recognize violence and violent behavior, how to prevent it and how to appropriately address their feelings; and

(6) to conduct evaluations to assess the impact of programs and policies assisted under this section in order to enhance the development of the programs.

The Director shall award grants and contracts under this section on a competitive basis.

(d) Policy dissemination

The Director shall disseminate to middle and high schools any existing Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, and Department of Education policy guidance and curricula regarding the prevention of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking, and the impact of the violence on children and youth.

(e) Nondisclosure of confidential or private information

In order to ensure the safety of adult, youth, and minor victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking and their families, grantees and subgrantees shall protect the confidentiality and privacy of persons receiving services. Grantees and subgrantees pursuant to this section shall not disclose any personally identifying information or individual information collected in connection with services requested, utilized, or denied through grantees’ and subgrantees’ programs. Grantees and subgrantees shall not reveal individual client information without the informed, written, reasonably time-limited consent of the person (or in the case of unemancipated minor, the minor and the parent or guardian, except that consent for release may not be given by the abuser of the minor or of the other parent of the minor) about whom information is sought, whether for this program or any other Tribal, Federal, State or Territorial grant program. If release of such information is compelled by statutory or court mandate, grantees and subgrantees shall make reasonable attempts to provide notice to victims affected by the disclosure of information. If such personally identifying information is or will be revealed, grantees and subgrantees shall take steps necessary to protect the privacy and safety of the persons affected by the release of the information. Grantees may share non-personally identifying data in the aggregate regarding services to their clients and non-personally identifying demographic information in order to comply with Tribal, Federal, State or Territorial reporting, evaluation, or data collection requirements. Grantees and subgrantees may share court-generated information contained in secure, governmental registries for protection order enforcement purposes.

(f) Grant term and allocation

(1) Term

The Director shall make the grants under this section for a period of 3 fiscal years.

(2) Allocation

Not more than 15 percent of the funds available to a grantee in a given year shall be used for the purposes described in subsection (b)(4), (b)(5), and (b)(6) of this section.

(g) Distribution

(1) In general

Not less than 5 percent of funds appropriated under subsection (l) of this section in any year shall be available for grants to tribal schools, schools on tribal lands or schools whose student population is more than 25 percent Native American.

(2) Administration

The Director shall not use more than 5 percent of funds appropriated under subsection (l) of this section in any year for administration, monitoring and evaluation of grants made available under this section.

(3) Training, technical assistance, and data collection

Not less than 5 percent of funds appropriated under subsection (l) of this section in any year shall be available to provide training, technical assistance, and data collection for programs funded under this section.

(h) Application

To be eligible to be awarded a grant or contract under this section for any fiscal year, a middle or secondary school, in consultation with an expert as described in subsections (i)(2) and (i)(3) of this section, shall submit an application to the Director at such time and in such manner as the Director shall prescribe.

(i) Eligible entities

To be eligible to receive a grant under this section, an entity shall be a partnership that—

(1) shall include a public, charter, tribal, or nationally accredited private middle or high school, a school administered by the Department of Defense under 10 U.S.C. 2164 or 20 U.S.C. 921, a group of schools, or a school district;

(2) shall include a domestic violence victim service provider that has a history of working on domestic violence and the impact that domestic violence and dating violence have on children and youth;

(3) shall include a sexual assault victim service provider, such as a rape crisis center, program serving tribal victims of sexual assault, or coalition or other nonprofit nongovernmental organization carrying out a community-based sexual assault program, that has a history of effective work concerning sexual assault and the impact that sexual assault has on children and youth; and

(4) may include a law enforcement agency, the State, Tribal, Territorial or local court, nonprofit nongovernmental organizations and service providers addressing sexual harassment, bullying or gang-related violence in schools, and any other such agencies or nonprofit nongovernmental organizations with the capacity to provide effective assistance to the adult, youth, and minor victims served by the partnership.

(j) Priority

In awarding grants under this section, the Director shall give priority to entities that have submitted applications in partnership with relevant courts or law enforcement agencies.

(k) Reporting and dissemination of information

(1) Reporting

Each of the entities that are members of the applicant partnership described in subsection (i) of this section, that receive a grant under this section shall jointly prepare and submit to the Director every 18 months a report detailing the activities that the entities have undertaken under the grant and such additional information as the Director shall require.

(2) Dissemination of information

Within 9 months of the completion of the first full grant cycle, the Director shall publicly disseminate, including through electronic means, model policies and procedures developed and implemented in middle and high schools by the grantees, including information on the impact the policies have had on their respective schools and communities.

(l) Authorization of appropriations

(1) In general

There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section, $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2007 through 2011.

(2) Availability

Funds appropriated under paragraph (1) shall remain available until expended.

U.S. Code

§ 14043c-3. Grants to combat domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking in middle and high schools