(October 14, 2016 – Jennifer Ortega) On September 13, the New York State Board of Regents unanimously approved regulations allowing New York higher education institutions to participate in the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (SARA). SARA is an “agreement among member states, districts and territories that establishes comparable national standards for interstate offering of postsecondary distance education courses and programs.” The agreement is meant to ease the process for offering online courses across state lines.
Higher education institutions within SARA member states are able to offer their distance education programs to students in other member states without having to undergo the lengthy, expensive process of receiving approval in each state in which they want to operate. As long as an institution in a SARA member state has authorization to operate in its “home state” and agrees to meet SARA requirements, it can operate distance education programs in other SARA member states.
SARA now covers 42 states across the country. For more information, please see the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements.
Jen Ortega serves as a consultant to EDUCAUSE on federal policy and government relations. She has worked with EDUCAUSE since 2013 and assists with monitoring legislative and regulatory proposals across a range of policy areas, including cybersecurity, data privacy, e-learning, and accessibility.