Program Integrity and Institutional Quality: Distance Education, Return of Title IV, HEA Funds, and Federal TRIO Programs

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION <CFR>34 CFR Parts 600, 643, 644, 645, and 668</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket ED-2024-OPE-0050]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1840-AD68, 1840-AD85, and 1840-AD92</RIN> <SUBJECT>Program Integrity and Institutional Quality: Distance Education, Return of Title IV, HEA Funds, and Federal TRIO Programs</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Office of Postsecondary Education, Department of Education. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Notice of proposed rulemaking. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Secretary is proposing to amend the Student Assistance General Provisions regulations governing participation in the student financial assistance programs authorized under title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA), to promote program integrity and institutional quality. These regulations would clarify, update, and consolidate certain provisions that apply to distance education; the return of title IV, HEA funds; and the Federal TRIO programs. A brief summary of the proposed rule is available at <E T="03">www.regulations.gov/docket/ED-2024-OPE-0050.</E> </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> We must receive your comments on or before August 23, 2024. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Comments must be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking Portal at <E T="03">regulations.gov.</E> Information on using <E T="03">Regulations.gov</E> , including instructions for finding a rule on the site and submitting comments, is available on the site under “FAQ.” If you require an accommodation or cannot otherwise submit your comments via regulations.gov, please contact one of the program contact persons listed under <E T="02">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT</E> . The Department will not accept comments submitted by fax or by email or comments submitted after the comment period closes. To ensure that the Department does not receive duplicate copies, please submit your comment only once. Additionally, please include the Docket ID at the top of your comments. <E T="03">Privacy Note:</E> The Department's policy is to generally make comments received from members of the public available for public viewing at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov.</E> Therefore, commenters should include in their comments only information about themselves that they wish to make publicly available. Commenters should not include in their comments any information that identifies other individuals or that permits readers to identify other individuals. If, for example, your comment describes an experience of someone other than yourself, please do not identify that individual or include information that would facilitate readers identifying that individual. The Department reserves the right to redact at any time any information in comments that identifies other individuals, includes information that would facilitate readers identifying other individuals, or includes threats of harm to another person. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Gregory Martin, U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW, 5th floor, Washington, DC 20202. Telephone: (202) 205-4595. Email: <E T="03">NegRegNPRMHelp@ed.gov.</E> If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability and wish to access telecommunications relay services, please dial 7-1-1. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Table of Contents</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. Abbreviations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Executive Summary</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Summary of Major Provisions</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. Invitation To Comment</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">V. Authority for This Regulatory Action</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VI. Background</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VII. Public Participation</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VIII. Negotiated Rulemaking</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IX. Significant Proposed Regulations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Distance Education</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Return of Title IV Funds</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Federal TRIO Programs</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">X. Regulatory Impact Analysis</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Abbreviations</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">CFR: Code of Federal Regulations</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">CIP Code: Classification of Instructional Programs code</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">EOC: Educational Opportunity Centers</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">FFEL: Federal Family Education Loan program</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">FSA: Federal Student Aid</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">Freely Associated States: the Republic of Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">HEA: Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">HHS: the United States Department of Health and Human Services</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">LEA: Local educational agency</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">PEP: Eligible prison education program</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">PRWORA: Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">R2T4: Return of title IV funds</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">RIA: Regulatory Impact Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">SEA: State educational agency</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">Title IV, HEA Programs: Student financial assistance programs authorized under title IV of the HEA</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">TRIO: Federal outreach and student services programs designed to identify and provide services for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">TS: Talent Search</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">UB: Upward Bound</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Executive Summary</HD> These proposed regulations address three substantive areas: distance education, return of title IV funds (R2T4), and the Federal TRIO programs (TRIO). The Department is addressing these areas in an effort to help ensure students are well served by the institutions of higher education they attend, increase access to postsecondary education for disadvantaged students, and ensure that Federal Student Aid programs work in the best interests of students. As the three distinct topics are structured and addressed independently in this proposed rule, the Department generally intends the rule's provisions to be severable from each other. The Department expects to provide additional detail on severability in the final rule once we consider public comments and finalize the regulatory language. The proposed distance education regulations would help the Department better measure and account for student outcomes, improve oversight over distance education, and ensure students are receiving effective education by expanding the definition of an <E T="03">additional location</E> to include virtual locations for programs offered entirely online or through correspondence, adding a definition of “distance education course,” requiring institutions to report their students' distance education status, and disallowing asynchronous distance education in clock-hour programs for title IV, HEA purposes. The proposed R2T4 regulations would help withdrawn students repay outstanding Direct Loan credit balances, increase the accuracy and simplicity of performing R2T4 calculations, address unique circumstances for what constitutes a withdrawal, clarify that distance education programs are attendance taking, and codify longstanding policies into regulation. The proposed changes to TRIO would expand student eligibility and provide greater access to postsecondary education for disadvantaged students under three programs that offer student services in a pre-postsecondary education setting—the Talent Search program, the Educational Opportunity Centers program, and the Upward Bound program by expanding participant eligibility to include all students who have enrolled in or who seek to enroll in a high school in the United States, territories, or Freely Associated States. <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Summary of the Major Provisions</HD> As specifically set forth in each of the areas identified below, the proposed regulations would: <HD SOURCE="HD2">Distance Education (§§ 600.2, 668.3, 668.41)</HD> • Amend § 600.2 to: (1) include in the definition of <E T="03">additional location</E> virtual locations where 100 percent of an educational program is provided through distance education or correspondence courses; (2) revise the definition of <E T="03">clock hour</E> to reflect that, for title IV, HEA purposes, coursework delivered via distance education cannot be asynchronous; and (3) add a definition for <E T="03">distance education course.</E> • Amend the academic year definition in § 668.3 to specify that, for purposes of the title IV, HEA definition of an academic year, asynchronous coursework offered through distance education could only be offered in credit-hour programs. • Amend § 668.41 to require institutions to report student enrollment in distance education or correspondence courses, using a procedure that would be determined by the Department. <HD SOURCE="HD2">Return of Title IV Funds (§§ 668.21, 668.22)</HD> • Amend § 668.21 to allow a student who received a loan disbursement as part of a title IV credit balance, but never began attendance in a payment period or period of enrollment, to repay loan funds they received under the terms of their promissory note. • Amend § 668.22 to exempt institutions from performing an R2T4 calculation in the event that (1) a student is treated as never having begun attendance; (2) the institution returns all title IV aid disbursed to the student for that payment period or period of enrollment; (3) the institution refunds all institutional charges to the student for that payment period or period of enrollment; and (4) the institution writes off or cancels any current year balance owed by the student to the institution due to the institution's return of title IV funds to the Department. • Amen ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 211k characters. 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