From adamh at gnpec.ga.gov Wed Jun 30 14:59:01 2021 From: adamh at gnpec.ga.gov (Adam Hawk) Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2021 19:59:01 +0000 Subject: [S-SARA] Accreditor Distance Education Approval Message-ID: Good afternoon everyone, I have an initial applicant that is seeking SARA membership. They are SACSCOC accredited, but when I reviewed their information on the SACSCOC website, it does not list a Distance Education Approval Date. When looking at the NC-SARA manual, it does not specifically say that they have to be approved by their accreditor to offer distance education to be eligible to participate. It states, "whose scope of recognition, as specified by the U.S. Department of Education, includes distance education". Has anyone had this issue or have thoughts on eligibility if the institution is accredited by an accreditor whose scope includes distance education, but they do not show they been approved to offer distance education? Hopefully you can see the screenshots below. [cid:image002.png at 01D76DC6.CA2E40A0] [cid:image001.png at 01D76DC3.020A51C0] Thank you for the feedback. Adam Hawk | Program Manager/GA-SARA Coordinator Georgia Nonpublic Postsecondary Education Commission (GNPEC) 2082 East Exchange Place, Suite 220 Tucker, Georgia 30084 770.414.3310 | www.gnpec.georgia.gov THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS E-MAIL IS CONFIDENTIAL and is intended to be sent only to the recipient(s)identified in the e-mail header above. Any review, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this privileged communication by anyone other than the intended recipient(s) or that person's agent is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify our Chief Information Security Officer immediately at ciso at gsfc.org. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 37979 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image002.png Type: image/png Size: 25030 bytes Desc: image002.png URL: From lykuhn at pa.gov Wed Jun 30 15:10:46 2021 From: lykuhn at pa.gov (Kuhn, Lynette) Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2021 20:10:46 +0000 Subject: [S-SARA] [External] Accreditor Distance Education Approval In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi Adam, We had a school in PA that was in the process of seeking approval of their DE programs, but did not receive approval yet. Our guidance from NC-SARA was this - "As long as their accreditor is recognized by USDOE and its scope includes distance education, the institution is good to go-for that area anyway. " We were going to deny them until they received the approval, but approved them based on this response. Lynette Kuhn | Division Chief Department of Education | Division of Higher Education, Access, and Equity Office of Postsecondary and Higher Education 333 Market Street | 12th Floor | Harrisburg, PA 17126 Phone: 717.783.6786 | www.education.pa.gov PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION This message is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is confidential. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivering the message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify the sender and then delete the communication from your electronic mail system. From: S-SARA On Behalf Of Adam Hawk Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2021 3:59 PM To: s-sara at lists.onenet.net Subject: [External] [S-SARA] Accreditor Distance Education Approval ATTENTION: This email message is from an external sender. Do not open links or attachments from unknown sources. To report suspicious email, forward the message as an attachment to CWOPA_SPAM at pa.gov. Good afternoon everyone, I have an initial applicant that is seeking SARA membership. They are SACSCOC accredited, but when I reviewed their information on the SACSCOC website, it does not list a Distance Education Approval Date. When looking at the NC-SARA manual, it does not specifically say that they have to be approved by their accreditor to offer distance education to be eligible to participate. It states, "whose scope of recognition, as specified by the U.S. Department of Education, includes distance education". Has anyone had this issue or have thoughts on eligibility if the institution is accredited by an accreditor whose scope includes distance education, but they do not show they been approved to offer distance education? Hopefully you can see the screenshots below. [cid:image002.png at 01D76DCA.7B2F5580] [cid:image003.png at 01D76DCA.7B2F5580] Thank you for the feedback. Adam Hawk | Program Manager/GA-SARA Coordinator Georgia Nonpublic Postsecondary Education Commission (GNPEC) 2082 East Exchange Place, Suite 220 Tucker, Georgia 30084 770.414.3310 | www.gnpec.georgia.gov THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS E-MAIL IS CONFIDENTIAL and is intended to be sent only to the recipient(s)identified in the e-mail header above. Any review, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this privileged communication by anyone other than the intended recipient(s) or that person's agent is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify our Chief Information Security Officer immediately at ciso at gsfc.org. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image002.png Type: image/png Size: 25030 bytes Desc: image002.png URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image003.png Type: image/png Size: 37979 bytes Desc: image003.png URL: From Elisa.Jaden at SREB.org Wed Jun 30 15:17:00 2021 From: Elisa.Jaden at SREB.org (Elisa Jaden) Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2021 20:17:00 +0000 Subject: [S-SARA] Accreditor Distance Education Approval In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Good afternoon, It is my understanding that as long as the accrediting agency's scope of recognition includes distance education, the institution is covered should they offer or choose to begin offering DE courses/programs. But I am curious to hear from the SPEs on their interpretation/implementation of this policy. Elisa Jaden Interim SARA Director Regional Program Coordinator Education Technology and Multistate Cooperative Programs Southern Regional Education Board Phone (404) 879-5517 E-mail: elisa.jaden at sreb.org From: S-SARA On Behalf Of Adam Hawk Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2021 3:59 PM To: s-sara at lists.onenet.net Subject: [S-SARA] Accreditor Distance Education Approval Good afternoon everyone, I have an initial applicant that is seeking SARA membership. They are SACSCOC accredited, but when I reviewed their information on the SACSCOC website, it does not list a Distance Education Approval Date. When looking at the NC-SARA manual, it does not specifically say that they have to be approved by their accreditor to offer distance education to be eligible to participate. It states, "whose scope of recognition, as specified by the U.S. Department of Education, includes distance education". Has anyone had this issue or have thoughts on eligibility if the institution is accredited by an accreditor whose scope includes distance education, but they do not show they been approved to offer distance education? Hopefully you can see the screenshots below. [cid:image002.png at 01D76DCB.59CEE940] [cid:image003.png at 01D76DCB.59CEE940] Thank you for the feedback. Adam Hawk | Program Manager/GA-SARA Coordinator Georgia Nonpublic Postsecondary Education Commission (GNPEC) 2082 East Exchange Place, Suite 220 Tucker, Georgia 30084 770.414.3310 | www.gnpec.georgia.gov THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS E-MAIL IS CONFIDENTIAL and is intended to be sent only to the recipient(s)identified in the e-mail header above. Any review, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this privileged communication by anyone other than the intended recipient(s) or that person's agent is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify our Chief Information Security Officer immediately at ciso at gsfc.org. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image002.png Type: image/png Size: 25030 bytes Desc: image002.png URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image003.png Type: image/png Size: 37979 bytes Desc: image003.png URL: From Sarah.Levy at ky.gov Wed Jun 30 15:24:40 2021 From: Sarah.Levy at ky.gov (Levy, Sarah (CPE)) Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2021 20:24:40 +0000 Subject: [S-SARA] [External] Accreditor Distance Education Approval In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: I previously received same response from NC-SARA that Lynette did. Best, Sarah Levy, J.D. Executive Director, Postsecondary Licensing Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education 100 Airport Road, Second Floor, Frankfort, KY 40601 502-892-3034 | sarah.levy at ky.gov http://cpe.ky.gov [cpelogo] This message may contain sensitive or confidential student and/or academic information and is for the exclusive use of the intended recipient(s). If you have received this communication in error, please return it to the sender indicating that you received it by mistake and delete the email. From: S-SARA On Behalf Of Kuhn, Lynette Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2021 4:11 PM To: s-sara at lists.onenet.net Subject: Re: [S-SARA] [External] Accreditor Distance Education Approval Hi Adam, We had a school in PA that was in the process of seeking approval of their DE programs, but did not receive approval yet. Our guidance from NC-SARA was this - "As long as their accreditor is recognized by USDOE and its scope includes distance education, the institution is good to go-for that area anyway. " We were going to deny them until they received the approval, but approved them based on this response. Lynette Kuhn | Division Chief Department of Education | Division of Higher Education, Access, and Equity Office of Postsecondary and Higher Education 333 Market Street | 12th Floor | Harrisburg, PA 17126 Phone: 717.783.6786 | www.education.pa.gov PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION This message is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is confidential. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivering the message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify the sender and then delete the communication from your electronic mail system. From: S-SARA > On Behalf Of Adam Hawk Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2021 3:59 PM To: s-sara at lists.onenet.net Subject: [External] [S-SARA] Accreditor Distance Education Approval ATTENTION: This email message is from an external sender. Do not open links or attachments from unknown sources. To report suspicious email, forward the message as an attachment to CWOPA_SPAM at pa.gov. Good afternoon everyone, I have an initial applicant that is seeking SARA membership. They are SACSCOC accredited, but when I reviewed their information on the SACSCOC website, it does not list a Distance Education Approval Date. When looking at the NC-SARA manual, it does not specifically say that they have to be approved by their accreditor to offer distance education to be eligible to participate. It states, "whose scope of recognition, as specified by the U.S. Department of Education, includes distance education". Has anyone had this issue or have thoughts on eligibility if the institution is accredited by an accreditor whose scope includes distance education, but they do not show they been approved to offer distance education? Hopefully you can see the screenshots below. [cid:image004.jpg at 01D76DCC.6BBAA8F0] [cid:image005.jpg at 01D76DCC.6BBAA8F0] Thank you for the feedback. Adam Hawk | Program Manager/GA-SARA Coordinator Georgia Nonpublic Postsecondary Education Commission (GNPEC) 2082 East Exchange Place, Suite 220 Tucker, Georgia 30084 770.414.3310 | www.gnpec.georgia.gov THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS E-MAIL IS CONFIDENTIAL and is intended to be sent only to the recipient(s)identified in the e-mail header above. Any review, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this privileged communication by anyone other than the intended recipient(s) or that person's agent is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify our Chief Information Security Officer immediately at ciso at gsfc.org. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 4224 bytes Desc: image001.jpg URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image004.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 11501 bytes Desc: image004.jpg URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image005.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 10481 bytes Desc: image005.jpg URL: From Elise.Scanlon at elisescanlonlawgroup.com Wed Jun 30 15:26:15 2021 From: Elise.Scanlon at elisescanlonlawgroup.com (Elise A Scanlon) Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2021 20:26:15 +0000 Subject: [S-SARA] Accreditor Distance Education Approval In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <805d7df5606b4509bfa44c3041df2c5f@elisescanlonlawgroup.com> One thought is that the institution is offering DE under the Department of Education's COVID flexibilities which will remain in place until 180 days after the national emergency is declared ended by the President. Ultimately, they will have to receive the approval of their accreditor to continue offering DE. It might be worth asking the institution to explain the discrepancy. From: S-SARA On Behalf Of Elisa Jaden Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2021 4:17 PM To: s-sara at lists.onenet.net Subject: Re: [S-SARA] Accreditor Distance Education Approval Good afternoon, It is my understanding that as long as the accrediting agency's scope of recognition includes distance education, the institution is covered should they offer or choose to begin offering DE courses/programs. But I am curious to hear from the SPEs on their interpretation/implementation of this policy. Elisa Jaden Interim SARA Director Regional Program Coordinator Education Technology and Multistate Cooperative Programs Southern Regional Education Board Phone (404) 879-5517 E-mail: elisa.jaden at sreb.org From: S-SARA > On Behalf Of Adam Hawk Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2021 3:59 PM To: s-sara at lists.onenet.net Subject: [S-SARA] Accreditor Distance Education Approval Good afternoon everyone, I have an initial applicant that is seeking SARA membership. They are SACSCOC accredited, but when I reviewed their information on the SACSCOC website, it does not list a Distance Education Approval Date. When looking at the NC-SARA manual, it does not specifically say that they have to be approved by their accreditor to offer distance education to be eligible to participate. It states, "whose scope of recognition, as specified by the U.S. Department of Education, includes distance education". Has anyone had this issue or have thoughts on eligibility if the institution is accredited by an accreditor whose scope includes distance education, but they do not show they been approved to offer distance education? Hopefully you can see the screenshots below. [cid:image005.jpg at 01D76DCC.A58B8860] [cid:image006.jpg at 01D76DCC.A58B8860] Thank you for the feedback. Adam Hawk | Program Manager/GA-SARA Coordinator Georgia Nonpublic Postsecondary Education Commission (GNPEC) 2082 East Exchange Place, Suite 220 Tucker, Georgia 30084 770.414.3310 | www.gnpec.georgia.gov THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS E-MAIL IS CONFIDENTIAL and is intended to be sent only to the recipient(s)identified in the e-mail header above. Any review, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this privileged communication by anyone other than the intended recipient(s) or that person's agent is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify our Chief Information Security Officer immediately at ciso at gsfc.org. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image005.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 18632 bytes Desc: image005.jpg URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image006.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 19374 bytes Desc: image006.jpg URL: From terrence at saranc.org Wed Jun 30 15:27:10 2021 From: terrence at saranc.org (SARANC) Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2021 20:27:10 +0000 Subject: [S-SARA] [External] Accreditor Distance Education Approval In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Dear Adam - I hope you are doing well. In addition to Lynette's response, another reason the NC-SARA Manual does not require institutions to hold distance education accreditation is because not all institutions that participate in SARA choose to do so to offer distance education. Sometimes, institutions participate in SARA so they can place students in other states for their on-ground/face-to-face programs that have a field placement experience (i.e., clinical, student teaching, internship, etc.). We have several institutions, located along the North Carolina border, that only participate in SARA because they have students that live in those states that border North Carolina, drive to campus for classes, but conduct their out-of-state learning placements in their home towns. Hope this helps. Take care, Terrence From: S-SARA On Behalf Of Kuhn, Lynette Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2021 4:11 PM To: s-sara at lists.onenet.net Subject: Re: [S-SARA] [External] Accreditor Distance Education Approval Hi Adam, We had a school in PA that was in the process of seeking approval of their DE programs, but did not receive approval yet. Our guidance from NC-SARA was this - "As long as their accreditor is recognized by USDOE and its scope includes distance education, the institution is good to go-for that area anyway. " We were going to deny them until they received the approval, but approved them based on this response. Lynette Kuhn | Division Chief Department of Education | Division of Higher Education, Access, and Equity Office of Postsecondary and Higher Education 333 Market Street | 12th Floor | Harrisburg, PA 17126 Phone: 717.783.6786 | www.education.pa.gov PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION This message is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is confidential. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivering the message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify the sender and then delete the communication from your electronic mail system. From: S-SARA > On Behalf Of Adam Hawk Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2021 3:59 PM To: s-sara at lists.onenet.net Subject: [External] [S-SARA] Accreditor Distance Education Approval ATTENTION: This email message is from an external sender. Do not open links or attachments from unknown sources. To report suspicious email, forward the message as an attachment to CWOPA_SPAM at pa.gov. Good afternoon everyone, I have an initial applicant that is seeking SARA membership. They are SACSCOC accredited, but when I reviewed their information on the SACSCOC website, it does not list a Distance Education Approval Date. When looking at the NC-SARA manual, it does not specifically say that they have to be approved by their accreditor to offer distance education to be eligible to participate. It states, "whose scope of recognition, as specified by the U.S. Department of Education, includes distance education". Has anyone had this issue or have thoughts on eligibility if the institution is accredited by an accreditor whose scope includes distance education, but they do not show they been approved to offer distance education? Hopefully you can see the screenshots below. [cid:image002.jpg at 01D76DCC.C51BD310] [cid:image004.jpg at 01D76DCC.C51BD310] Thank you for the feedback. Adam Hawk | Program Manager/GA-SARA Coordinator Georgia Nonpublic Postsecondary Education Commission (GNPEC) 2082 East Exchange Place, Suite 220 Tucker, Georgia 30084 770.414.3310 | www.gnpec.georgia.gov THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS E-MAIL IS CONFIDENTIAL and is intended to be sent only to the recipient(s)identified in the e-mail header above. Any review, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this privileged communication by anyone other than the intended recipient(s) or that person's agent is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify our Chief Information Security Officer immediately at ciso at gsfc.org. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image002.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 16620 bytes Desc: image002.jpg URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image004.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 14455 bytes Desc: image004.jpg URL: