6 U.S.C. § 665k — Federal Clearinghouse on School Safety Evidence-based Practices

(a) Establishment and administration. (1) The Secretary, coordinating with the Education Secretary, the Attorney General, and the Health and Human Services Secretary, must establish a Federal Clearinghouse on School Safety Evidence-based Practices within the Department. (2) The Clearinghouse must be a Federal resource that identifies and publishes online through SchoolSafety.gov, or a successor website, evidence-based practices and recommendations to improve school safety. These materials are for use by State and local educational agencies, institutions of higher education, State and local law-enforcement agencies, health professionals, and the general public. (3) The Clearinghouse must receive the personnel and resources the Secretary considers appropriate. The Education Secretary, the Attorney General, and the Health and Human Services Secretary may detail personnel to it. (4) Chapter 35 of title 44, commonly called the “Paperwork Reduction Act,” does not apply to rulemaking or information collection required under this section. The Federal Advisory Committee Act does not apply for purposes of carrying out this section. (b) Clearinghouse contents. (1) When identifying practices and recommendations, the Secretary must consult appropriate Federal, State, local, Tribal, private-sector, and nongovernmental organizations, including civil-rights and disability-rights organizations. The Secretary must also consult the Education Secretary to ensure that the Clearinghouse’s published evidence-based practices align with evidence-based practices that support a positive and safe learning environment for all students. (2) The Clearinghouse’s evidence-based practices and recommendations must: (A) include comprehensive evidence-based school-safety measures; (B) include the evidence or research supporting the Clearinghouse’s determination that the practice or recommendation has been shown to significantly improve the health, safety, or welfare of people in school settings, including relevant evidence-based research, findings and data from earlier Federal or State commissions recommending improvements to a school’s safety posture, and other supporting evidence or findings the Clearinghouse relied on, as determined in consultation with the officials described in subsection (a)(3)(B); (C) include information about Federal programs for which implementing each evidence-based practice or recommendation is an eligible use of the program; (D) be consistent with Federal civil-rights laws, including title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; and (E) include developmentally appropriate recommendation options for educational settings that account for children’s ages and physical, social, sensory, and emotional development. (3) After consulting the officials described in subsection (a)(3)(B), the Clearinghouse must present best practices and recommendations issued by Federal, State, local, Tribal, private-sector, and nongovernmental organizations and identify any Clearinghouse practice or recommendation previously issued by such an organization or commission. (c) Assistance and training. The Secretary may produce and publish Clearinghouse materials to assist and train educational agencies and law-enforcement agencies in implementing the evidence-based practices and recommendations. (d) Continuous improvement. (1) For continuous improvement of the Clearinghouse, the Secretary must collect: (A) Clearinghouse data analytics; (B) user feedback about implementing the Clearinghouse’s resources, evidence-based practices, and recommendations; and (C) evaluations of implementing the Clearinghouse’s evidence-based practices and recommendations. (2) Coordinating with the Education Secretary, the Health and Human Services Secretary, and the Attorney General, the Secretary must: (A) regularly assess and identify Clearinghouse practices and recommendations for which no resources are available through Federal Government programs for implementation; and (B) establish an external advisory board made up of appropriate State, local, Tribal, private-sector, and nongovernmental organizations, including organizations representing parents of elementary and secondary school students, civil-rights organizations, disability-rights organizations, educators, law enforcement, and nonprofit school-safety and security organizations. The board must: (i) give feedback on implementing the Clearinghouse’s practices and recommendations; and (ii) propose additional evidence-based practices for inclusion in the Clearinghouse that meet subsection (b)(2)(B). (e) Parental assistance. The Clearinghouse must produce materials in accessible formats to help parents and legal guardians of students identify relevant Clearinghouse resources related to supporting implementation of the Clearinghouse’s evidence-based practices and recommendations.