The Education Department (ED) said in a March 17 letter that it would not rescind a controversial new rule requiring online schools that operate nationwide to register with every state in which they have students.
Educators and ed-tech officials said [1] the regulation—known as the state-authorization rule—will mandate the burdensome task of state-by-state certification, imposing a financial strain on web-based colleges that could be passed down to students.
The federal rule [2], unveiled in October, was scheduled to go into effect July 1. ED officials would now be satisfied with a “good-faith effort” from colleges and universities.
ED said in its letter [2] that online colleges must prove they are working toward certification in every state in which they operate by July 1 after many in higher education said it wouldn’t be possible to meet the deadline for state-by-state registration.
ED’s open letter was in response to a March 2 request from 60 higher-education organizations asking federal officials to rescind the rule before its implementation date.