State Authorization Shifts Again: What’s Changing and Why It Matters

Like the “Mighty Yopp” from Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who! the first federal regulation on state authorization of distance education in 2010 echoed a powerful message from the states: “We’re here!” That Federal regulation affirmed that states have enforceable legal requirements that institutions must follow when engaging in activities within their borders.

In April 2011, WCET quickly stepped in to support its members by developing with partners, the State Approval Regulations for Distance Education: A ‘Starter’ List as guidance on state-by-state requirements and launched the State Authorization Network (SAN).

This new membership group developed a community for institutions and organizations to collaborate on managing compliance processes. Since then, it has remained essential for institutions to identify each student’s location as well as interpret and implement each state’s statutes and regulations to secure the necessary authority to offer activities, including distance education, to students in those states.

With the creation of the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (SARA), much of the conversation shifted away from individual state requirements overseeing distance education as states volunteered to join the reciprocity agreement to require institutions to provide uniform student consumer protection to students in all SARA member states. However, in recent years, several states have introduced important changes that deserve renewed attention, particularly for California institutions and any other institution that must obtain state-to-state institutional approval for out-of-state activities of the institution.

Today, with valuable input from several state regulators, we’re sharing updates on recent state-level changes affecting state authorization of distance education, along with the latest developments regarding California’s proposed 2025 legislation proposing to allow the state to join a reciprocity agreement. [...]