Distance Ed Institutions May Need More State Approvals

October 28, 2010

The U.S. Department of Education may be requiring institutions that offer distance education courses to meet the state approval requirements for each state in which the institution enrolls students.

This morning, I have been sifting through a new “Program Integrity Issues” document released by the Department and posted by Inside Higher Ed this morning.  The document includes comments made by individuals, institutions, and organizations on the recent Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) on federal financial aid issues. The “Program Integrity Issues” document (all 894 pages of it) also includes the Department’s responses to these issues and their changes to the original rules they proposed.

I’m not a lawyer, but I’m doing my best to understand what is being required.  Also, there are many issues in this document that we’ll need to address. This issue of state approvals was brought to my attention last night and could have a huge impact. […]