State approval for distance learning programs

From the ATS web site, but not specific to ATS schools. It should be interesting to see how this plays out. Link at the bottom.

"The US Department of Education has issued a requirement that schools be able to demonstrate that they have the approval of every state in which they have a student enrolled in a distance education program. The higher education community, accrediting organizations, and many states pushed back on this requirement, and its full enforcement has been delayed until 2014. Until then, schools are expected to make “good faith” efforts to secure the approval of any state in which a student is participating in their distance education programs. Not all states have a process for approving institutions that do not physically operate in the state, and as of early summer, the Department of Education did not have a list of the office in each state that should be contacted. Currently, accrediting agencies do not have a direct role in determining an institution’s “good faith” effort to obtain state approval, and hopefully it will remain that way. As far as I know, there is no similar requirement related to provinces in Canada, and no province requires the registration of institutions not located in the province but with residents of the province enrolled in their distance education program. Even though the enforcement of the US federal requirement has been delayed, there may be states that expect out-of-state institutions to obtain approval, but ATS does not have a list of these states. We will be working on providing this information to member schools as it becomes available."


http://www.ats.edu/Accrediting/Documents/ProposedDegreeStandards/DistanceLearning.pdf