Ill. Admin. Code tit. 23, § 1033.30 - [Effective until 5/13/2024] Institution Approval Requirements
a) Authorization to Participate
1) Any degree-granting postsecondary
institution, including public, private nonprofit and private for-profit
institution, that desires to participate in SARA to offer distance education
under the authority of the State of Illinois must:
A) Be accredited as defined in Section
1032.20.
B) Have Illinois as the designated home
state, as defined in Section 1032.20, for postsecondary education
offerings.
C) Be financially
stable, evidenced by:
i) being a public
institution of higher education in Illinois; or
ii) being a private for-profit or private
nonprofit institution participating in federal student aid programs under Title
IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (PL 89-329 ), by meeting the
following criteria: having a most recent Federal Financial Responsibility
Composite score of 1.5 or above; or having a
financial responsibility score between 1 and
1.4 and providing additional
financial evidence described in subsection (a)(2) to the Board to determine the
financial status of the institution; or
iii) being a private for-profit or private
nonprofit institution not participating in federal student aid programs and
without a Federal Financial Responsibility Composite Score, providing a
comparable score that is calculated by an independent accountant using the U.S.
Department of Education's calculation methodology that matches the
institution's sector and is certified by the same independent accountant and
additional financial evidence described in subsection (a)(2) to the Board to
determine financial status of the institution.
D) No private for-profit or private nonprofit
institution with a Federal Financial Responsibility Score below
1.0 will be determined eligible
by the Board to participate in SARA through this State, even if any such
institution is cleared by the U.S. Department of Education to participate in
Title IV student aid programs.
2) The following shall be used by the Board
staff to determine the financial status of institutions required to provide
additional financial evidence:
A) A written
statement in the most recent fiscal year audited financial statement confirming
that the institution is financially stable. The audited financial statement
must show that the institution has adequate revenue to meet its financial
obligations, including payment of unearned tuition.
B) An irrevocable letter of credit from a
bank or other similar financial institution in an amount equivalent to the
estimated unearned tuition revenue from distance education students in one
academic year. The formula to calculate unearned tuition is the maximum number
of students that could be enrolled in any one academic year multiplied by the
amount of the tuition for each academic level charged by the institution. The
sum of the subtotals by academic level is the estimated unearned tuition
revenue.
b)
Institutional participation shall be voluntary and, as such, institutions that
choose not to participate will be governed by current Illinois statutes and
regulations for distance education programs (the Board of Higher Education Act
[110 ILCS
205], the Private College Act [110 ILCS
1005], the Academic Degree Act [110 ILCS
1010 ], and the Public Community College Act
[110 ILCS
805], and 23 Ill. Adm. Code 1030, 1050 and
1051).
c) Physical Presence
1) Any institution that meets the
requirements of subsection (a) that has Illinois as the home state, is located
in Illinois and holds its principal institutional accreditation in Illinois
must receive Board approval for operating and degree granting authority under
the Private College Act, the Academic Degree Act, or the Board of Higher
Education Act, or be exempt from approval requirements as specified in 23 Ill.
Adm. Code 1030.
2) Any Illinois
public community college desiring to participate in SARA shall be reviewed and
approved by ICCB. This will not abrogate the Board of Higher Education's
authority to request reviews of community colleges participating in the
agreement.
3) Any out-of-state
institution from any SARA member state with physical presence as determined
under this subsection (c)(3) must apply and obtain operating and degree
granting authority from the Board. In determining whether such out-of-state
participating institution has a physical presence, the following shall apply:
A) The institution has a physical location in
this State for synchronous or asynchronous instruction;
B) The institution requires students to
physically meet in a location for instructional purposes more than twice per
full-term (quarter or semester) course for a total of more than six
hours;
C) The institution offers a
"short course" or seminars that require more than 20 contact hours in one
six-month period;
D) The
institution establishes a physical location to provide information for the
purpose of enrolling students or providing student support services;
E) The institution establishes an
administrative office, including but not limited to office space for
instructional or noninstructional staff;
F) The institution maintains a mailing
address or phone exchange in Illinois.
4) Any out-of-state institution from a SARA
member state that does not have physical presence in Illinois shall not be
required by the Board to fulfill any additional Illinois requirements to
operate under SARA if it does the following:
A) Offers distance learning courses that do
not require students to gather in groups, except for the provisions in
subsection (c)(3)(B);
B) Holds
recruitment activities or advertises to students, whether through print,
billboard, direct mail, internet, radio, television or other media;
C) Offers distance education courses on a
military base if enrollment in those courses is limited to federal employees
and family members;
D) Maintains a
server, router or similar electronic service device housed in a facility that
otherwise would not constitute physical presence (the presence of a server or
similar pass-through switching device does not by itself constitute the
offering of a course or program in Illinois);
E) Has faculty, adjunct faculty, mentors,
tutors or other academic personnel residing in Illinois (the presence of
instructional faculty in Illinois, when those faculty teach entirely via
distance education and never meet their students in person, does not establish
physical presence for purposes of the SARA);
F) Holds proctored exams on behalf of the
institution in Illinois;
G) Has
contractual arrangements with third-party providers to offer or support SARA
eligible programs. Any contact between a third-party provider of educational
services and the State or SARA office must be made through the participating
degree-granting institution. A third-party provider may not represent a
participating institution regarding any subject under SARA's operating policies
to any SARA office or the State of Illinois;
H) Offers educational field experiences for
students, including an educational field trip arranged for a group of students
that are normally in residence at an institution in another state, with the
exception of full-scale residency programs such as a summer session at a field
station;
I) Operates limited
supervised field experiences. For the purposes of the SARA, interstate
supervised field experiences originating from any member state's distance
learning or campus-based program will be considered distance education not
triggering physical presence if those activities involve placing not more than
10 students from any academic program, who are physically present
simultaneously, at a single clinical facility or site in Illinois. Any
out-of-state SARA member institution intending to have a larger pool of student
placement must get approval from the Board to do so. Any out-of-state SARA
member institution that owns a supervised field experience, clinical or
practicum site shall be exempted from the limitations on placement of its own
students at that site.
5)
Any institution approved to participate in SARA that offers courses or programs
designed to lead to professional licensure or certification or advertised as
leading to licensure must satisfy all federal requirements for disclosures
regarding such professional licensure programs under
34 C.F.R.
668.43. These requirements will also apply to
non-Title IV institutions. To comply with this requirement, participating
institutions must do the following:
A)
Provide a list of all states for which the institution has determined that its
curriculum meets the state educational requirements for licensure or
certification;
B) Provide a list of
all states for which the institution has determined that its curriculum does
not meet the state educational requirements for licensure or certification;
or
C) Provide a list of all states
for which the institution has not made a determination that its curriculum
meets the state educational requirements for licensure or
certification;
D) Provide
notification in writing to enrolled students that the institution has
determined that the course or program does not meet or if it is not determined
if it meets the requirements for professional licensure or certification in the
state in which the student is located;
E) Provide notification in writing to
prospective students before financial obligation is made that the institution
has determined that the course or program does not meet or if it is not
determined if it meets the requirements for professional licensure or
certification in the state in which the student is located; and
F) Institutions that are unable, after all
reasonable efforts, to determine whether a program will meet state professional
licensure requirements shall provide the student or applicant with current
contact information for any applicable licensing boards and advise the student
or applicant to determine whether the program meets requirements for licensure
in the state where the student is located.
6) Out-of-state institutions that choose to
participate outside the reciprocity agreement or are from nonmember states will
be bound by other Illinois laws identified in subsection (b) for distance
education programs.
Notes
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