By Faith Farley, AACRAO Government Relations Intern, and Mike Bilfinger, Assistant Director, Public Policy, AACRAO
On July 24, 2024, the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) proposed a rule in the federal register that would impact distance education programs and some federal educational activities.
The proposed rule contained specific provisions of concern for AACRAO related to the following:
Given these concerns, AACRAO, in collaboration with other higher education associations, joined a community letter to the department and sent an individual letter highlighting these points. Furthermore, AACRAO members and the Government Relations team discussed these concerns with congressional members during our 2024 Hill Day event and in follow-up meetings with staffers. The Department addressed these concerns, leading to the Department issuing a final rule. This article discusses the concerns with the proposed rule, the subsequent final rule, and its implications.
Summary of AACRAO Concerns with the Proposed Rule
Concern with Attendance-Taking
The first concern is that the proposed rule includes language that requires all distance education courses to implement attendance taking, which was defined as more than a simple roll call. Institutions would have to show that learners in distance education programs engaged in regular and substantive interaction. Otherwise, institutions would be required to automatically withdraw learners without regular and substantive interaction within a 14-day period. This is of great concern because not all courses or learners have this interaction every 14 days during a program. For example, military personnel may need to be away for an extended period, or a graduate course may only have a midterm and a final, without any assignments in between.
Concern with Allowing for Asynchronous Clock-Hour Programs
The second concern is the proposed rule would prevent learners enrolled in asynchronous clock-hour programs from accessing Title IV federal funds. AACRAO’s concern is that discontinuing asynchronous programs would disproportionately impact non-traditional learners, who tend to rely more heavily on federal student aid and who also are more likely to have to balance other commitments such as family care or work, therefore making the flexibility of asynchronous modality very important for them.
Concern with Defining Virtual Locations
The third concern is this proposed rule attempts to redefine a distance education program and create a new term, virtual locations, specifically for reporting purposes. Under the proposed rule, distance education programs would be defined as those that take place solely at a distance “notwithstanding in-person non-instructional requirements, including orientation, testing, academic support services, or residency experiments.” This is problematic because it fails to account for any hybrid program. For instance, a course could feasibly involve weekly recorded lectures that learners are expected to watch on their own time and weekly in-person labs to review course material. This course would be simultaneously asynchronous, synchronous, virtual, and in-person. So, how would the institution report this program to the Department?
Addressed Concerns and Implications of The Final Rule
Thankfully, the final rule, released on January 2, 2025, addressed many of the concerns that AACRAO raised. The final regulations do away with:
So, what does the final rule include in relation to the concerns that were raised?
The final rule defines a “distance education course” as one in which all instruction occurs exclusively through distance education methods, as currently defined in existing regulations. This rule applies even if the course involves in-person non-instructional activities such as orientation or testing.
While the final rule doesn’t require institutions to take attendance, it does require schools to record a learner’s withdrawal date within 14 days of their last date of attendance.
The regulations will be effective on July 1, 2026, but the due date for institutions to submit enrollment data on students enrolled in distance education or correspondence courses is July 1, 2027. This new reporting will be incorporated into the existing enrollment reporting process of the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS). The Department estimates that it will take institutions an additional 28 hours to implement this reporting, a cost of over $10 million in the first year alone across roughly 3,700 schools offering distance education courses.
AACRAO’s government relations team will closely monitor this issue as it starts to take effect, and we encourage readers to stay in touch via the Advocacy Group on the AACRAO Exchange.