Who is the State Authorization Network, "SAN"?

Since 2011, SAN, a network of WCET, has been the leader for guidance and support for navigating regulatory compliance for out-of-state activities of post-secondary institutions.

What is a Statement of Work?

The Statement of Work is a description of SAN's focus areas and projects we plan to undertake to meet the needs of members in the upcoming academic year. The Statement of Work also reinforces the benefits for SAN members that we and WCET strive to provide. 

View the current list of SAN institution and agency members.

SAN Membership fee is discounted if at least one institution or entity within the SAN individual or SAN group membership has separately joined WCET, SAN's parent organization. See option charts below.

• Coordinators are responsible for sharing information with the other institutions/organizations within their membership.
• Coordinators are responsible for sharing the SAN website login with institution contacts.
• Memberships held by more than one institution must designate a single point of contact for the invoice; management of the division of the payment will be the responsibility of the institutions involved.

SAN Annual Fee with separately held WCET Membership (WCET+SAN Benefits)

OR

SAN Annual Fee with No WCET Membership

*Organizations, State Agencies or Portal Entities may choose from the larger memberships if they wish to include institutions.  Office-only memberships for state agencies and portal entities, no fee if the office is not also a WCET member.

Renewals - For SAN 2025-2026 (July 1, 2025 - June 30, 2026)

• Step 1:  Coordinators will consult with all member institutions/organizations to update contact information and institutions/organizations that are part of your membership.
• Step 2:  If there are changes, ONE COORDINATOR will advise Leigha Fletcher, lfletcher@wiche.edu by May 15, 2025.
• Step 3:  If there are no changes, the membership automatically will be renewed and the invoice sent on May 15, 2025.
• Deadline for changes:  May 15, 2025, with payment due by July 1, 2026.
• Membership Coordinator may request an early invoice to submit in this fiscal year by contacting Leigha Fletcher, lfletcher@wiche.edu by April 15, 2025.

New Memberships - Please see the Join SAN information on the Membership page.

SAN Coordinators.  

• Each SAN membership appoints one to three SAN Coordinators, depending on the number of institutions within the membership, to manage the membership. Our members may be organizations, state systems, consortiums of colleges, or individual institutions.
• SAN Coordinators must supply contact information about the institutions or entities that are part of their membership including: institution/entity name, contact person with email, FTE range, WCET membership status, and SARA participation status.
• Coordinators are expected to share SAN member information with institutions/entities within their membership.

Activities reserved solely for the SAN Coordinators:

• Monthly Calls. Compliance and membership updates and guests sharing timely information.
• SAN Coordinators' Community in wcetMIX. An email distribution tool providing announcements and information.
• Annual Coordinators' Meeting. An in-person meeting with special guests and resources.  All resources developed will be posted on the SAN website for access by all SAN members.
• Website Access. Coordinators will receive a personal login to the password protected SAN website which can be shared with institution/entity contacts within their membership.

Benefits for all staff members at SAN /participating institutions/entity. Everyone employed by a SAN participant (including coordinators) may take part in the activities listed below.

• SAN Website. Includes public facing and member-only content.  New and updated content regularly added.
• Open Forum. Monthly 60-minute member-only opportunity for all members to discuss the topic of the month and engage in Q&A. Additional discussion time may be provided as needed. The event is not recorded.
• eNewsletter.  Monthly summary and updates of news, resources, and events.
• SAN Network Community in wcetMIX. A member discussion board and avenue for member alerts.
• Compliance Training. SAN provides compliance training in a variety of ways, including:             
  • Webcasts, seminars, & small constituency group events - offer advice and information for both new and experienced compliance officers and other key stakeholders at the institution.
  • Collaborative meetings and webinars with partners such as NC-SARA and NASASPS.
  • SANBox Learning Center where SAN's trainings are housed, including
    • The SAN Foundations Course, a virtual 8-week online course on the fundamentals of out-of-state activity compliance.
    • Materials for our in-person training opportunities including implementation and Advanced Topics Workshops.
  • Annual workshops, including State Authorization Advanced Topics, offer in-depth compliance analysis and interactive training. SAN members may participate at a reduced cost.
• Reciprocity Support. Updates on the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (SARA) including steps that institutions can take to manage participation in SARA and stay apprised of prospective policy changes.
• Examine State Requirements.  Assists with examining state requirements outside of reciprocity policy.
• Emerging Federal Regulations. Track the state authorization regulations under the Departments of Education, Veterans Affairs and Defense, in addition to other related regulations. SAN will inform members as to how they can provide input.
• Comprehensive Compliance Insights. Stay informed on issues beyond state authorization, such as global compliance, professional licensure, accreditation, accessibility, data privacy, distance education definitions, and regular and substantive interaction, and other emerging areas that relate to interstate distance education and digital technologies. SAN provides updates and guidance to help institutions navigate these evolving regulatory areas.
• SAN Advisory Group. Panel of SAN members who make recommendations on programmatic issues of interest to the membership at-large.
• Special Interest Teams.  Small working groups perform research and provide deliverables on issue areas which benefit the network.

Focus Areas. SAN will share information, provide research, and develop training on the following issues that members identified:

• Provide analysis, direction to comment, and implementation strategies to address Federal rulemaking and Federal guidance, and other Federal developments impacting compliance and digital technologies.
• Provide additional state institutional approval information per state. (Outside of reciprocity)
  • Develop new tools, webinars, and programming to manage institutional approval outside of reciprocity or in a limited SARA world.
    • A webinar or short course focused on institutional approval for those institutions not participating in reciprocity via SARA.
    • A how-to checklist for obtaining state-to-state institutional approval.
• Offer SAN Foundations Course for Year 3 (with timely updates as needed). 
• Offer an in-person Basics Implementation Workshop to complement the SAN Foundations 8-week course.
• Develop additional asynchronous course offerings to be housed in the SANBox Learning Center, along with the Foundations course. Such as:
  • A course designed to speak to the needs and challenges of institutions that do not participate in SARA.
  • A course to cover professional licensure requirements and compliance management.
• Develop an in-person Advanced Topics Workshop on compliance and change management with a focus on a timely topic for members (may be offered in-person or virtually synchronously).  
• Continue interactions addressing Professional Licensure Board Research and Best Practices.        
  • Developing contacts with the various program accreditors and licensing boards.
  • Collaboration strategies with the institution stakeholders for compliance structure.
  • Facilitating the collaboration with national licensing boards to address this issue with their state members.
  • Developing resources to assist institutions with direction on institutional and programmatic requirements for licensure programs (such as but not limited to, program approval requirements, registration requirements, reporting requirements, faculty licensure requirements, etc.)
• Development of a topical webinar series.  Multi-webinar event addressing a specific topic from the viewpoints of various stakeholders and various types of institutions.
• Expand and facilitate opportunities for member engagement, such as, but not limited to, a SAN Ambassadors program, Special Interest teams, discussion groups, communities of practice, etc.
• Creation of new member-only resources with one- or two-page abstracts and tables on issues of importance to compliance with digital technology and out-of-state activities.
  • Accreditation issues – including the intersection of accreditation and out-of-state activity and federal compliance
  • Foundational principles chart for compliance   
  • Top 10 things a middle manager would like a senior staff member to know about digital learning compliance
• Develop a practical guide to an emerging issue.
• Develop additional resources for international compliance support, including expanding the data provided in the international ministries chart.
• In addition to SAN’s commitment to its own self-compliance with the digital accessibility requirements of our various resources, we’ll create resources such as checklists, webinars, and papers to educate and train our members on compliance with accessibility requirements. 

Links:

SAN website: https://wcetSAN.wiche.edu

SAN email:  san-info@wiche.edu

WCET blog with updates and recommendations: https://wcet.wiche.edu/frontiers/

wcetMIX for discussion board and email lists:  https://mix.wiche.edu/home/

SAN Team

Cheryl Dowd - Senior Director, State Authorizations Network & WCET Policy Innovations; cdowd@wiche.edu; (303)541-0210

Jana Walser-Smith, Director, Interstate Compliance and SAN Member Outreach; jwalsersmith@wiche.edu; (303)541-0289

Kathryn Kerensky – Director, Digital Learning Policy & Compliance; kkerensky@wiche.edu ; (303)541-0290

Leigha Fletcher - Administrative Assistant; lfletcher@wiche.edu; (303)541-0211