Session 3 – Day One Agenda Includes
R2T4 and Distance Education
Overview
The third, and likely final session, of the Program Integrity and Institutional Quality Federal Negotiated Rulemaking is set to begin at 10 AM ET. Per the revised Agenda (www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2023/program-integrity-and-institutional-quality-committee-session-3-agenda-revised.pdf) posted by the Department on the website, the Department will begin the final round of negotiations with deliberations on Issue Paper 4 (www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2023/session-3-issue-paper-r2t4-v3.pdf) : Withdrawals and Return of Title IV Funds (R2T4) in the morning and turn to Issue Paper 3: (www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2023/session-3-issue-paper-distance-education-v3.pdf) Distance Education for consideration in the afternoon.
During the morning discussions the Department and non-Federal negotiators will attempt to reach consensus on a series of revisions that primarily impact institutions who measure programs in clock hours, provide modular-based programs, and institutions that are required to take attendance.
CSPEN will be paying particular attention to a new definition of determining when “a student is not considered to have withdrawn”, the new addition to the attendance taking regulations that will require institutions to take attendance for each course offered entirely thorough distance education, and revisions to the determination of the percentage of the payment period or period of enrollment completed in the determination of R2T4 using a new assessment point of when a student has begun attendance in the payment period for clock hour programs or begun attendance in the module for modular programs.
In the afternoon, the four key areas of discussion will be the addition of a new regulatory definition under “additional location” of a “virtual location”, the proposals to repeal the ability for clock hour institutions providing distance education to do so in an asynchronous environment, the addition of a new definition of “distance education course,” and new mandatory reporting by institutions to the Secretary of all Title IV recipients’ enrollment in distance education or correspondence courses.
Handicapping the Outcome of Day One
CSPEN anticipates that a significant portion of the regulatory revisions in Issue Paper 4: Withdrawals and Return of Title IV Funds will be adopted by consensus, but believes that at least two, if not all three of the issues noted above will be opposed by one or more non-Federal negotiator.
Given that the four issues noted in the summary above essentially constitute all the changes in Issue Paper 3: Distance Education, CSPEN foresees opposition by one or more non-Federal negotiators to the proposals.
CSPEN will provide a summary of the final outcome of both Issue Papers in our Tuesday morning email, which will also outline the Issue Papers based upon the Agenda for each subsequent day.
Live Stream Registration
For those of you interested in viewing the negotiations live, register here (web.cvent.com/event/ecad855b-f15d-403b-86d0-7515d116ed39/regProcessStep1).
