Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's Compliance with the Commonwealth's Anti-Hazing Law

This is a State Auditor review of whether Massachusetts secondary schools and DESE followed the state’s anti-hazing reporting requirements.

“In accordance with Chapter 11, Section 12, of the General Laws, the Office of the State Auditor conducted an audit of DESE to determine whether all Commonwealth secondary schools, both public and private, had complied with the anti-hazing reporting requirements of Chapter 269, Section 19, of the General Laws and 603 CMR 33.00.”

Auditors wanted to know whether schools filed required yearly anti-hazing reports by October 1 and whether DESE reported schools that failed to file by November 1.

“Specifically, we sought to determine whether all secondary schools filed annual compliance reports with DESE by October 1 of each year and whether DESE notified the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) by November 1 of each year concerning any secondary schools that had not filed the required annual compliance report.”

Anti-hazing rules are meant to help protect students, and weak oversight means the state could not be sure schools were meeting those safety obligations.

“Because of DESE’s inadequate oversight of the anti-hazing program, there is inadequate assurance that all the Commonwealth secondary schools are meeting anti-hazing requirements and that students’ right to a safe environment is upheld.”

The audit found major gaps: DESE had only a small number of reports on file and did not report thousands of missing reports to the Attorney General.

“Accordingly, during this time period more than 4,300 reports should have been reported as delinquent to the OAG.”

DESE told auditors it had begun building systems to track reports, communicate with schools, maintain school lists, and monitor compliance.

“The DESE has worked with the OAG’s Civil Rights Division to create communication protocols for compliance with notifying the OAG by November 1 of each year of a secondary school not filing a report as required by the law; developed and is maintaining an up-to-date list of all public and private secondary schools as defined by the anti-hazing law, including contact information for school leaders to facilitate communication about the anti-hazing law; developed a system for tracking and maintaining compliance reports; communicated with school leaders about the requirements of the anti-hazing law; and, has developed a compliance monitoring system to ensure schools’ compliance with the anti-hazing law requirements.”

An anti-hazing compliance report is a yearly school filing saying the school shared the anti-hazing law and has a discipline policy for hazing organizers and participants.

“Each institution of secondary education . . . shall file, at least annually, a report with . . . the board of education, certifying that such institution has complied with its responsibility to inform student groups and each full time student enrolled by it of the provisions of this section and sections seventeen and eighteen and also certifying that said institution has adopted a disciplinary policy with regard to the organizers and participants of hazing, and that such policy has been set forth with appropriate emphasis in the student handbook or similar means of communicating the institution’s policies to its students.”