Distance Education Proposed Regulations 2024: WCET & SAN Public Comment
WCET and SAN submitted an extensive public comment on the U.S. Department of Education’s proposed distance education regulations. We invite you to join us in commenting.
On July 24, 2024, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) released the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) and proposed regulations related to the most recent negotiated rulemaking. The regulatory issues in this proposed rulemaking package include Distance Education, Return to Title IV (R2T4), and TRIO Programs. WCET and SAN are committed to closely following these issues, providing information through publications and events, as well as encouraging institution participation in the regulatory process.
Our July WCET Frontiers post Buckle Up. ED is Off to the Races with Its NPRM provided a detailed analysis of the proposed regulations that could have a direct impact on distance education and digital learning. In that post, we urged you to review the proposed regulations, consider our analysis, and consider submitting your own public comment. The window to submit a formal comment closes on August 23, 2024. There is still time to submit a public comment! You must act quickly!
WCET and SAN have prepared and submitted our public comment in which we expand on our quick analysis in the earlier blog post. Review our comment and consider some of the themes that may affect your institution. We released our comment ahead of the deadline in case you wish to echo any of our concerns or support for what is proposed. Importantly, in your comment you should share specific student impact stories and clarifying questions with the Department. It is especially important to ask the Department clarifying questions as it is required to respond to all public comments.
Please note that WCET and SAN support the intent of the Department to provide student protection and protect the integrity of Title IV Federal aid programs. We support the Department’s Principles for Regulating listed in its regulatory plan, 78 FR 1361, published January 8, 2013. “ED is committed to regulations that improve the quality and equality of services it provides to its customers. ED will regulate only if absolutely necessary and then in the most flexible, most equitable, and least burdensome way possible.” The purpose of the WCET and SAN public comment is to balance adding new student protections while minimizing negative impacts on those same students. [...]