Part 1: Interstate Reciprocity and Physical Presence

Recommendations:

1.1. Interstate Reciprocity

A. States should be encouraged to participate in a voluntary system of interstate reciprocity to reduce the regulatory burden on institutions providing distance learning opportunities to students in multiple states, broaden access to distance education opportunities, and ensure a baseline of standards among participating institutions and states. States should opt into the reciprocity agreement through their existing participation in regional compacts. Those states that are not current members of a regional compact should be able to request membership in a regional compact for the limited purpose of participating in the reciprocity agreement.27 (Regional compacts are discussed fully in Recommendation 2.1.)

B. An institution should not be able to participate in the interstate reciprocity agreement if the state which is its home state is not a participant in the interstate reciprocity agreement. Thus, institutions that are located in non-participating states are not eligible to take part in the agreement.

1.2. Physical Presence

A. As a prerequisite to participation in the interstate reciprocity agreement, states that seek to participate should adopt a common definition of physical presence, as it applies to the interstate reciprocity agreement, to decrease confusion among institutions, clarify oversight responsibilities for states, and ensure that students participate in duly vetted academic programs. For purposes of the interstate reciprocity agreement, the definition of "physical presence" should be limited to the ongoing occupation of an actual physical location for instructional purposes or the maintenance of an administrative office to facilitate instruction in the state.

B. Institutional activities in a state that meet the definition of physical presence , as defined here, permit but do not require a state to require the institution to seek authorization by that state, both for the general authority to offer instruction within that state.

C. The authorizing state will serve as the institution's "home state" for purposes of the interstate reciprocity agreement. Institutions that have physical presence in more than one state will have only one home state (the presumptive home state will be the institution's state of legal domicile)28 for purposes of the interstate reciprocity agreement. Once designated, the home state should have responsibility for authorizing the institution for purposes of interstate reciprocity and be the default forum for consumer complaints (described fully in Recommendation 4.2). (Institutions would continue to need general state authorization, outside the scope of interstate reciprocity, in all states in which they have physical presence.)

D. For purposes of the interstate reciprocity agreement, institutions delivering pure distance education courses and conducting no other activities in a state should not be deemed to be physically present. These institutions, therefore, should have to seek authorization for purposes of interstate reciprocity only from their home state. Other institutional activities that should not trigger physical presence requirements include:

• Advertising,
• Recruiting,
• Contractual arrangements in states (e.g., procurement contracts or online academic offerings provided through consortia agreements),
• Courses on military installations by an accredited institution, limited to active and reserve military personnel, dependents of military personnel, and civilian employees of the military installation,29
• Faculty residing in the state,
• Field trips,
• Proctored exams held in the state,
• Operation of a server or other electronic service device,
• Short courses (20 classroom hours or less, or the equivalent thereof),
• Courses for which fewer than 25 percent of class requirements take place in a setting where the instructor and students physically meeting together,
• Experiential learning opportunities, such as a clinical, practicum, residency, or internship, provided that:
  • The institution has already obtained all the necessary professional and licensure approvals necessary (if any) to conduct the learning opportunity in the state, and
  • Only ten students from each institution are physically present simultaneously at a single field site.

The following chart catalogs all triggering and non-triggering activities as described in Recommendation 1.

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