AACOM Government Relations has received questions regarding the Department of Education's Negotiated Rulemaking Committee on Program Integrity and Institutional Quality (Committee) so we wanted to provide an update to our communities. The Committee, which reviewed state authorization and reciprocity agreements, included AACOM nominee Erika Linden (DMU-COM) as the primary negotiator for private nonprofit higher education institutions. Despite participating in three sessions this year, the negotiators did not reach consensus. As a result, ED will be publishing its own proposed rule expected this fall. Once a rule is released, there will be the opportunity to provide public comment and AACOM plans to do so. We urge individual COMs to submit comments as well.
During the negotiations, ED’s final state authorization proposal raised concerns regarding the future of NC-SARA and state reciprocity agreements. Specifically, the “500 rule” would require institutions to obtain direct authorization from any participating state where the institution enrolls more than 500 students in each of the two most recently completed Title IV award years.
In response to this proposal, NC-SARA put together lists of institutions with more than 500 distance education enrollments and institutions with more than 500 out-of-state learning placements in one or more states. Several COMs are included on this latter list:
- Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine
- Liberty University
- Lincoln Memorial University
- Midwestern University
- New York Institute of Technology
- Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine
Should the regulations go through as ED proposed during the negotiated rulemaking, the schools listed above may have to be directly authorized in the states where they have more than 500 students. We stress may because no proposed regulations have been released and thus far ED has been unclear on how they treat clinical rotation. Our understanding from ED's response to our previous comments and our engagement with subject matter experts is that clinical rotations are not considered distance education. However, ED has not clarified if students on a clinical rotation in another state would be considered “enrolled in that state” for the purpose of the proposed 500 rule.
Currently, our best intel is that ED’s proposed rules won't be released until October 2024. This would not allow for a final rule to be promulgated by the November 1, 2024 deadline. If this timeline holds, any new rules on state authorization would not take effect until at least July 1, 2026. This may be subject to change, particularly if there is a shift in the Administration.
We continue to engage in the rulemaking process and will provide updates as they become available. For more information you can view the NC-SARA summary and March webinar. All materials from the Negotiated Rulemaking Committee, including issue papers, proposed regulations, and session recordings, can be found here.