The U.S. Education Department (ED) failed to publish final rules on distance education, Return of Title IV Funds (R2T4), and TRIO eligibility by November. As a result, the regulations cannot be required to take effect when the next award year starts on July 1, in keeping with the requirements of the Higher Education Act.
Earlier this year, ED held several panels of “negotiating rulemaking” on key issues related to program integrity and institutional quality. Community colleges were deeply engaged in this rulemaking process and were represented at the panels by Jo Alice Blondin, president of Clark State College (Ohio), and Michael Cioce, president of Rowan College at Burlington County (New Jersey). ED advanced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on R2T4, distance education and TRIO, but left other areas of consideration, including cash management, state authorization and accreditation, for later.
The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) subsequently filed formal comments on the NPRM in August also met with ED management and budget officials on the pending rules. The department was expected to issue final rules by November 1. Missing the deadline is likely attributable to several factors, including the plethora of regulatory activity that continues to take place at ED. The delay was also reportedly related to the detailed and complex public comments that were submitted, including AACC’s.
Problematic items on the table
In the association’s comments to ED, AACC President and CEO Walter Bumphus highlighted concerns with several regulatory proposals, most prominently:
- Required attendance-taking for all distance education courses. This requirement seemed unnecessary and unworkable, and it reflected an inadequate appreciation of the nature of online education in today’s digital environment. AACC seeks to have this requirement radically restructured and limited, if not eliminated.
- Elimination of all asynchronous clock-hour programs offered online. Although community colleges generally do not offer a high number of these programs, in some places they are essential.
- Reporting to ED all students who enroll in at least one distance education course. Although this requirement seems straightforward, implementing it would be highly complicated and potentially prone to error, given shifting student enrollments.
- Cost estimates that wildly underestimated the resources necessary to put the new rules into place.
In some cases, AACC suggested alternative language, hoping that, if the department did not completely agree to the community college position, officials would at least be willing to compromise.
In any case, community college administrators no doubt breathed a sigh of relief when November 1 passed and ED did not finalize rules. The future course of the regulations is unclear, but the Biden administration could still finalize the rule and give campuses the option of early implementation. Otherwise, the next administration will have the opportunity to determine whether to advance policy changes in these areas.
