The Presidents’ Forum

1. http://presidentsforum.excelsior.eduMulti-State Reciprocity in Postsecondary Approval and Regulation

2. The Presidents’ Forum • LAUNCHED IN 2004, THE PRESIDENTS’ FORUM is a collaborative of regionally accredited, adult-serving institutions and programs offering online higher education, related national associations, and stakeholder policy bodies that cover all sectors of not-for-profit and for-profit higher learning. This collaborative provides a venue to formulate policies and action strategies that drive innovation and best practices in online learning.

3. Forum Projects • 2006 - Access to Learning, a national education project that introduces public policy leaders to the methods, advantages, and quality of online learning. • 2008 - Transparency By Design, with support from the Lumina Foundation, is creating a common, timely, and shareable data reporting process to track learning outcomes and institutional performance against a variety of metrics (College Choices for Adults). • 2009 - Demonstration Projects to Improve Efficiency and Alignment of State Regulatory Requirements and Encourage Reciprocal Agreements,with support from the Lumina Foundation, facilitate a national dialogue on the impact of the complex and widely diverse requirements and regulations among each of the 50 American states. • 2010 – Making Opportunity Affordable,with support from the Lumina Foundation, FORUMwill explore the potential for a voluntary, interstate agreement (Multi-State Reciprocity in Postsecondary Approval and Regulation) to broaden the availability of accredited online degree programs by reducing state regulatory barriers while ensuring strong consumer safeguards.

4. Multi-State Reciprocity in Postsecondary Approval and Regulation • Explore the potential of a voluntary, interstate reciprocity agreement (compact) to simultaneously streamline the approval processes for institutions that seek to offer degree programs across political boundaries, while enabling states to operate essential regulatory functions with greater consistency and efficiency.

5. Update on State/Agency Responses Only 7 states (14%) regulate out-of-state online; but 18 (35%) regulate other non-standard presence

6. Update on State/Agency Responses Beyond conventional physical presence, state jurisdiction is quite extensive in some areas; generally complex and inconsistent 57% % of States that Assert Jurisdiction Over Aspects of Unconventional Physical Presence 45% States 27% 20% 14% 12% 6% 6% 2% Source: agency sites, WCET report, Dow Lohnes report, Eduventures correspondence and analysis

7. Current Status • Surveyed state authorization officers from diverse states, regarding differing state practices and procedures, and assessed possible state interest in reciprocal approaches. • Engaged these officers in listing expectations and recommending language for inclusion in a template to serve as a guide for the creation of a model voluntary reciprocity agreement for consideration by the states - “Toward A Model Template Upon Which An Interstate Reciprocity Compact Of College And University Program Authorization Could Be Based”. • Engaged the Council of State Governments, to organize a small drafting team and body of advisors, to create model compact legislation for the purpose of information, education, and consideration by the states and other stakeholders.

8. Next Steps • Communicate the draft model(s) widely, seeking wide input and participation. • Educate policy makers, stakeholders, and states to explore the benefits of possible applications of the model compact legislation or similar voluntary reciprocity agreements.