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Advocates ask lawmakers to require study‑abroad safety data after multiple student deaths
Summary
A travel‑safety advocate and victim advocate urged the Joint Committee on Higher Education to create a centralized reporting system for serious injuries and deaths of students abroad, citing at least six known U.S. student deaths in the last six months and calling for a state dashboard to track incidents.
Carrie Pascarello, a travel safety expert and victim advocate, told the Joint Committee on Higher Education that Massachusetts should establish centralized tracking and transparency for serious incidents involving students studying abroad.
Pascarello said families and campuses lack consistent data about injuries, assaults and deaths that occur overseas. “Over the past 6 months, there have been 6 students that I know of who have died while studying abroad,” she told the committee, adding that there may be more cases that are not visible because there is no central reporting system.
She noted the Clery Act provides campus crime statistics domestically but that no equivalent system exists for study abroad. With no consistent reporting, Pascarello said universities and policy makers cannot analyze patterns to develop interventions. She added that women face heightened risks of gender‑based violence while abroad.
Committee members asked whether other states maintain dashboards; Pascarello said at least one state does and offered to provide details to the committee. The bill discussed would initially focus on Massachusetts secondary and postsecondary institutions that sponsor study abroad programs; the sponsor and advocates said state reporting is a first step toward national coordination.
The committee did not record a vote; advocates urged the panel to move the bill forward and make study‑abroad safety information available to families and institutions.
