Western Association of Schools and Colleges

The Department of Education has issued new regulations that will have a significant impact on all accredited institutions and accrediting agencies.  While the draft regulations are 500 pages long, there are three regulations that we believe will affect our institutions the most:

• state authorization (§600.9)
• federal definitions of a credit hour (§600.2)
• misrepresentation (§602.24)

To help our member institutions to understand the proposed rules and their impact on all of us, and to identify issues that might be addressed in public comments to the Department of Education, WASC hosted a webinar on Thursday, July 1, 2010.

• Click here for a complete recording of this presentation 
• Click here for a full copy of the proposed regulations
• Click here for a copy of Ralph Wolff's powerpoint presentation
  
• Click here for a copy of Ralph Wolff's answers to webinar chat questions

Public comments on the proposed regulations will be accepted by the Department of Education until August 2, 2010.  Comments may be submitted through:

• Federal eRulemaking Portal. Go to http://www.regulations.gov to submit your comments electronically.Information on using Regulations.gov, including instructions for accessing agency documents, submittingcomments, and viewing the docket, is available on the site under ‘‘How To Use This Site.’’

• Postal Mail, Commercial Delivery, or Hand Delivery. If you mail or deliver your comments about these proposed regulations, address them to Jessica Finkel, U.S. Department of Education, 1990 K Street, NW., room 8031, Washington, DC 20006–8502.

Once adopted, the new rules will go into effect July 1, 2010.