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The U.S. Department of Education has specified that all colleges and universities offering distance education courses outside of their state must be authorized by each state in which they are offering courses. The U.S. DOE released the following: “If an institution is offering postsecondary education through distance or correspondence education to students in a state in which it is not physically located or in which it is otherwise subject to state jurisdiction as determined by the state, the institution must meet any state requirements for it to be legally offering postsecondary distance or correspondence education in that state. An institution must be able to document the secretary of the state’s approval upon request” (Chapter 34, § 600.0(c) Higher Education Opportunity Act).
The State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement is a national initiative to ensure compliance standards are met when online courses are taken by students residing outside of the state in which the college is located. To learn more about SARA, please visit www.nc-sara.org/sara-states-institutions. The College of Central Florida is a member of the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements. This agreement allows the college to offer online instruction to students in every US state, district and major territory, other than California, the Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau. A student who is a resident of CA, CNMI, AS, GU, MH, FM or PW and is interested in taking courses at the College of Central Florida is encouraged to contact the College or visit https://www.nc-sara.org/sara-states-institutions to see if the state, district or territory’s status has changed.
Although the College of Central Florida is authorized to offer online instruction in other states, the college’s online programs are not automatically accepted to meet any professional licensure requirements of any other jurisdiction. The college does not design or intend for any of its online programs to meet such requirements in any specific jurisdiction.
For students seeking a professional license in another state, it is important that the student seeks information about the requirements in their chosen state. A good place to start is the U.S. Department of Education. The student should not assume that one of the college’s programs will qualify them to seek licensure in any state, based on the program title, area of study or any other criteria. Please contact E-Learning at DLHelp@cf.edu for assistance.
All student complaints should first follow the college’s complaint procedures. If the complaint cannot be resolved through the college’s complaint procedures, the student may contact the Division of Florida Colleges for additional information. If neither of these resolves the complaint, distance education students may appeal noninstructional complaints to the Florida State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement Post Secondary Reciprocal Distance Education Coordinating Council. For additional information on the complaint process, please visit the FL-SARA complaint process page.
For any specific questions about state authorization for distance education, or state complaint procedures, please contact E-Learning at 352-854-2322, ext. 1317, or DLhelp@cf.edu or visit https://www.cf.edu/academics/degrees-and-certificates/online-learning/state-authorization-information/. For a student who resides outside of Florida and applies for or enrolls in a program that could reasonably be construed to lead to professional licensure, please make sure that the college has the correct email address on file as the college will contact the student regarding that program’s licensure status in the relevant state, district or territory.
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