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State Authorization Update October 28, 2016 Office of Academic Programs

Find out about USC Columbia's participation in the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (SARA), its benefits, responsibilities, and compliance with licensing and certification rules.

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State Authorization Update October 28, 2016 Office of Academic Programs

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  1. State Authorization UpdateOctober 28, 2016Office of Academic Programs

  2. State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (SARA) Participation • July 1, 2016 - South Carolina became 41st SARA state • USC Columbia became SARA institutional member August 17, 2016 • Today, 42 states & the District of Columbia are in SARA • Who’s left? • Kentucky and Pennsylvania have applied for SARA – in by early 2017 • Main holdouts in New England - New York & New Jersey first have to join their regional compact , then apply for SARA; Connecticut just got state approval to apply for SARA; Massachusetts is making progress. • California also at the legislative stage, but is encountering some political opposition. • Florida may be last to join, due to portal agency dispute

  3. What does participation in SARA mean? • SARA states share standards for the interstate offering of EL and DL. • We can offer DL courses to students in all other SARA states if we are not requiring students to gather physically. • We can advertise to students through print, billboard, direct mail, internet, radio, TV. • We can have faculty, tutors, and recruiters residing in other SARA states. • We can hold proctored exams in other SARA states. • We can operate limited supervised field experiencesin other SARA states. For more information: See main SARA website www.nc-sara.org.

  4. What are our responsibilities as a SARA institutional participant? 1. Adhere to shared SARA principles and regulations 2. Report annually to NC-SARA on numbers of Distributed Learning (DL) and Experiential Learning (EL) students in each SARA state 3. Comply with licensing and certification rules existing outside of SARA purview in SARA states 4. Continue to follow state authorization rules in non-SARA states

  5. How do we comply with licensing and certification rules? • You need to know whether your program will make a student eligible to sit for a professional licensure exam in the state where they are doing their EL • You need to send each out-of-state EL student in writing one of three letters – stating that either you • Know that your program makes them eligible to sit for licensure exam in state where they’re doing EL; OR you • Know that your program does NOT make them eligible to sit for licensure exam in state where they are doing EL; OR you • Know that there is insufficient information to judge whether your program makes them eligible to sit for licensure exam in state where they’re doing EL

  6. Programs are responsible, but Academic Programs can help Responsibility for licensing compliance will be on the programs themselves, as their faculty and staff are the experts. You may already know the licensing requirements in multiple states. Here’s how we can help: • Unofficial state regulatory information on relevant programs has been compiled in a Dropbox folder for Professional Licensure • Contains information on 49 states’ licensing bodies, links, state regulations • Also has template letters for notifying students of licensure, & additional info on SARA. USC Columbia Colleges will be contacted by my office when students in DL or EL coursework may require licensure notification. Dropbox Professional Licensure folder URL: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gf22k0ife9tkr3e/AADxbufRpjoLvu7-OuaUleS_a?dl=0

  7. Important new restrictions! SARA allows LIMITED supervised field experiences – limited because: • You may have NO MORE THAN 10 students doing EL at the same site, in any SARA state. • Different departments at the same hospital can count as different sites. 2. SARA may require annual renewal of the contract you have with clinical sites. We have heard this from other SARA participants, but have not been able to verify it yet.

  8. Rules are evolving, as SARA grows • Federal Dept of Education is adding regulations to: • strengthen student complaints policy/procedures • clarify definitions of EL terminology (“supervised field experience”) • circumscribe how we describe our SARA status (“cannot claim we are approved by authorization entities of other SARA states….can only state that we are operating in a host state under terms & provisions of SARA”) • NC-SARA is compiling a SARA Manual that includes these stricter regulations.

  9. Questions about SARA or SARA Requirements? Kristia H. Finnigan Meghan B. Fields (803) 777-3245 (803) 777-0300 finnigan@mailbox.sc.edufieldsmb@mailbox.sc.edu Assistant Provost for Academic Programs Program Coordinator Office of the Provost Academic Programs Office Office of the Provost

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