Prepare to make a splash at our licensure compliance session! Diving into the regulatory waters of online programs, you’ll discover how we navigated turbulent licensure disclosures, aligning with 2020 regulations and prepping for 2024 and beyond. Take the plunge into our collaborative journey and leave refreshed with invaluable compliance insights.

Department of Education regulations effective July 2020 require institutions receiving federal financial aid to disclose to students whether an educational program leading to a professional credential will satisfy educational requirements and qualify them to work in the state where they are located, regardless of the modality of the program. NC-SARA member rules contain similar requirements. Prior to the federal regulations, a decentralized system managed by academic units at our institution provided licensure information to students. The 2020 federal disclosure requirements necessitated moving to a centralized system maintaining data for all licensure programs and licensure status for each U.S. state. New regulations taking effect July 2024 prohibit institutions from enrolling online students into licensure programs if they are located in a state where the program does not meet the educational requirements without obtaining an attestation from the student. Programmatic accreditation disclosures are also required. This case study reviews the process we developed to comply with the 2020 regulations, which included program identification, communications with academic leadership about the programs, and sustainability planning. Critical to the success of this project was the ability to create the dashboard and data collection system to allow students to find the program licensure status for any state. Salesforce CRM coding mechanisms identify applied and enrolled students for these programs, and automated communication streams direct students to the licensure information they need. These processes had to be reviewed and a new compliance plan created for the 2024 regulations, and include a membership in “The Bookmark,” a resource tool from the Higher Education Licensure Pros. This collaborative effort engaged colleagues across the university, including online education analytics, IT, compliance, and student services staff, university financial aid leaders, academic leadership, and faculty. This case study will describe the processes we created and demonstrate how the information is presented to students. Learning Outcomes: Participants in this session will be able to: (1) Describe the compliance problem, including regulations and requirements from NC-SARA and the federal government. (2) Identify the various stakeholders needed to solve the problem. (3) Create a plan of action that will educate academic leadership on compliance requirements, gather appropriate licensure information, and communicate information to students in a clear and effective way. (4) Use our discussion of successes and failures to inform their own institutional compliance efforts. Engagement: We plan to use online and/or in-person polling, encourage Q&A with participants, and engage participants in a discussion of compliance efforts at their own institutions. Presentation Outline: 1. Overview of Regulations, including NC-SARA requirements, Federal 2020 regulations, and Federal 2024 regulations 2. Description of Problem (we had no central repository or even list of programs leading to licensure). 3. Overview of various stakeholders involved. 4. Solution Design, including Data Collection/Organization, Student Data Presentation, and Student Disclosures 5. Successes 6. Ongoing Challenges