ED Continues Neg Reg Session With Discussion on State Authorization and Distance Education
Maria Carrasco
February 8, 2024
The Department of Education (ED) on Tuesday continued its negotiated rulemaking session on program integrity and institutional quality, gathering stakeholders to discuss the topics of state authorization and distance education.
While Monday’s session focused on cash management, Tuesday’s session began with negotiators discussing ED’s updates to the draft regulatory text on state authorization. The updates to the text were made after the first session in January.
ED added regulatory language related to its discussion questions from the first session to address state exemptions from state authorization requirements, based on accreditation status or having been in operation for more than 20 years. New language would phase out such exemptions by 2030.
The discussion then moved to the topic of states’ “education-specific” laws. ED asked negotiators to think about what defines an education-specific law, and to provide feedback. Federal negotiator Gregory Martin noted that ED received a proposal from negotiators to allow states participating in a reciprocity agreement to enforce their own education-specific laws.
