Analysis: ED’s Final Institutional Eligibility, General Provisions, Byrd Scholarship Program Regulations – NASFAA
Editor’s Note: On November 1, the Department of Education (ED) released its final rules regarding accreditation, state authorization of distance education, and student assistance general provisions. The rules become effective July 1, 2020. This article is the second in a series of three analyzing the rules, and will focus on institutional eligibility, general provisions, and the Robert C. Byrd Scholarship program.
These rules are the culmination of the work of 2018-19 negotiated rulemaking sessions, which also included discussions on faith-based entities, the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant program, and distance learning — none of which have seen proposed rules published for public comment. As a reminder, negotiators reached consensus during those rulemaking sessions, which meant that ED was obligated to publish the consensus regulatory language in its proposed regulations, which were released in June. Changes from the proposed rules reflect ED’s incorporation of public comments. See all of NASFAA’s coverage of the rulemaking process.
Institutional Eligibility
ED added a definition of “additional location” as a facility geographically apart from an institution’s main campus where the institution offers at least 50% of a program. ED also created a revision of the definition of “branch campus” to note that a branch campus is considered an additional location under the new definition of that term.
The final rules would keep the proposed changes to the regulatory language from June’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), which adds a definition of “teach-out” as a period of time during which a program, institution, or location engages in an orderly closure, or, following closure, when another institution provides the opportunity for students to complete their program. In addition, the final rules would further clarify that a “teach-out” is an activity, rather a period of time.