Hi everyone,

Let's get the niceties out of the way – NOLA was great, such a gorgeous old city with an amazing food scene in some great out of the way places. On Tuesday, October 24th the ED released (in draft form) the final set of regulations stemming from their huge set of proposals back in May. In this set were, as we had feared, new regulations affecting State Authorizations and programs that lead to professional licensure. There were other items in this batch, but in this and another email I will send later this week, we're only going to look at the ones that directly affect the work that we do in this particular arena. It is important to note before we get into this, that while myself and others are working with SAN and WCET to send official questions to the ED for clarifications, these regulations are considered final and go in to effect on July 1, 2024. There are two main areas that we will all have to work with: Professional Licensure programs and State Authorization, and while they're related, it's worth splitting them in to two emails. So, in today's dispatch, let's look at what is new relating to professional licensure programs. The full language is in the pdf attached to this email but here's the long & short of it:

For professional licensure programs (i.e., those programs that are designed or advertised as leading to licensure or certification in a field where a person working in said field is required by state law to hold a professional license or certification) ‐

• The program must be accredited if that a requirement of the state where the institution is located (I.e., CO or any other state where we are offering instructon on ground) or the state where the student is located or where the student attests that they intend to become licensed.
• The institution must publish a list of all states where the institution has determined that the program does and does not meet said licensure requirements.
• For prospective students, the institution must directly notify them if he program's curriculum does not meet the State educational requirements for licensure or certification in the State in which a prospective student is located, or if the institution has not made a determination.
• For current students, the institution must directly notify them if the curriculum does not meet the state requirements for licensure within 14 days of making the determination (due to either a change in the student's location or the state's requirements).

So right away I'm guessing you've seen some of the contradictions as well an interesting new aspect.

The good: we already have (or should) a way to determine a student's location before enrollment and after. And most, if not all, of our licensure programs already have programmatic accreditation. For current students we are (or should be) already notifying students if their location changes or a state's reg changes and the curriculum won't meet that state's requirements. 

The bad: the contradiction between having a public website (notifications) that clearly states where we do and do not meet requirements vs. The fact that we would have to notify prospective students if we don't meet or cannot determine. Notice in the public notifications "unable to determine" is gone. That's right. In the public notifications you MUST make a decision. No more using "unable" for those states you haven't researched or where you honestly can't find the necessary information. But again, weirdly we're allowed to use it when informing the prospective students? This was a HOT topic last week – one of the discussions in the session on professional licensure was that this was 1)potentially misleading; 2)confusing to administer; 3)aggravating.

What will you need to do right now – AS A CAMPUS (not per program or college, this must be a university level decision) you must decide how to mitigate this. Will you just not list states on the public websites where you have been unable to make a determination? Or will you treat unable to determine as a "does not meet." For Boulder – there are very very few states/programs that have been labeled as "unable to determine," thus I will give it one more try to either obtain the information or come to agreement with a program and we will cease using "unable" all together by 7/1/24. All professional licensure programs and states will fall in to either "does meet" or "does not meet."

The "what in the world...": Did you notice that I mentioned students "attesting" where they intend to seek employment? Yeah. While the ED is still working on the assumption that students go to school and work in the same state and never move, they did hear some of the comments last May where WCET‐SAN and institutions and others noted that the wording of the proposed regulations would have not allowed us to deliver education to students located in states where we don't meet the licensure requirements regardless if the student planned on moving or was located there only temporarily. These final regulations allow us to collect (and retain) an attestation from the student indicating that while they may be in a state where our program doesn't meet licensure requirements they plan on seeking licensure and employment in a different state where our curriculum does meet the requirements (or they're just taking the program for personal growth and have no desire to work professionally in the field...it could happen). Attestations form students located in states where we're not able to meet licensure requirements will have to complete an attestation before we're able to disperse federal aid to those students.

We acknowledged last week this could horribly wrong – from students lying just to get the federal money or institutions or individual staff pressuring students to sign something just to get them enrolled and that federal money in the door or gatekeeping who could access federal money over more expensive private loans. But none of that would ever happen, would it?

What will you need to do right now – Right now? Nothing. Don't panic. In the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be having conversations with UIS to see how we can leverage Campus Solutions here. Since there will need to be a "form" element to this, it may need to be automated for currently enrolled students if they change locations mid‐year/program, AND we will need to properly retain this documentation (I am a librarian after all), I want to see if we can find a system wide solution that we can all use to make things a little bit easier.

Another new & important piece to take into consideration – professional licensure programs and some state authorization requirements now live in 668.14 Program Participation Agreements, which means you will need to coordinate and talk to the Office of Financial Aid on your campus as they are going to have to start reporting on how we are complying. This also means, noncompliance may danger the institutions ability to access federal financial aid. Where the past we were able to keep OFA informed of what we're doing but without too much overlap, as of July 1, 2024, we will be working directly with them in making sure they understand the campus process for determining location, which programs are affected etc., and assisting them in accurately reporting our compliance as required.

What (else) do you need to do right now? As we had talked about before – where are your students located and which professional licensure programs are offered online? What states/programs have you used "unable to determine" and why? Are you actively recruiting for students in some of those states and what might happen if you were no longer able to?

Stay tuned for tomorrow when we'll look at the third new part in 668.14(b)(32) that deals with state authorization and the curious wording as well as the new 45‐day time frame in 668.16 for "geographically accessible" experiential learning placements when they're required for licensure programs.

I've also attached the slides from the presentation on Thursday – and pardon some of the bumpiness, we ripped through the regs and preamble as fast as possible and put this together in about a day and a half. But in that slide deck are prompts for conversations starters, ideas on how to begin some of the work, and a look at what you will likely need to document.

Want to read more? Cheryl Dowd and the folks at WCET & SAN have put together a long but detailed read on these same regs – grab a drink of choice and enjoy: https://wcet.wiche.edu/frontiers/2023/10/31/new‐federal‐regulations‐part‐1‐addressing‐programs‐leading‐to‐a‐license‐or‐certification/

Erika G. Swain
Associate Director for State Authorization
Office of Academic Affairs
University of Colorado System
e: swaine@cu.edu
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Assistant Director for Compliance and Authorization
Office of Data Analytics | Office of Institutional Research
University of Colorado Boulder
e: Erika.Swain@colorado.edu
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o: (303) 735‐8184
c: (518) 637‐9785

“Today I will be a Bulgarian Minister of Education,” Bokonon tells us. “Tomorrow I will be Helen of Troy.” – Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle