What Might Happen to the Department’s Pending Regulations and Guidance?
The direction for regulations and guidance for digital and distance education shifted greatly with the recent election. As you may recall, the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) was planning to release sweeping regulatory changes on distance education, accreditation, state authorization reciprocity, and mandatory fees for books and materials. They also planned changes to guidance for “bundled services,” which affects online program management relationships.
You asked about the state of the outstanding regulations and guidance. We will give you our best insights in this blog post. A future post will explore what might be expected from the new administration…and beyond.
A Rule is a Rule Until It is No Longer Rule
The truism in that title seems obvious, but we often hear from people who think that promised change is wholesale and immediate. It is not.
Many Department regulations are currently in place and have been for years. A few examples include regular and substantive interaction, obligations to meet authorization and professional licensure requirements in other states, and student identity verification – which ensures that the distance student completing an assessment is the same one who registered for a course.
Existing Regulations or Guidance: Any existing regulations will remain in effect until they go through an official process to be changed. Similarly, guidance is amended or withdrawn formally by the agency providing the guidance. There are several pathways for the official change process for existing regulations. In the following section, we will highlight what those processes are. Meanwhile, we urge you to remain in compliance with existing regulations and guidance.
Proposed Regulations or Guidance: Any proposed regulations do not go into effect until they complete all of the statutorily mandated processes to be implemented. Currently, several regulations are midstream in the process and have not reached the far side of the river. We will highlight some of those of interest the WCET and SAN memberships. [...]