What’s The Deal With SARA?

Online Compliance

By now you’ve probably heard of the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements, more succinctly known as SARA. But what exactly is it and why does it matter for our institution and our students?

SARA was created in 2013 to streamline the regulations around distance education across state lines. At its core, it is a series of agreements among member states/districts/territories that establishes a uniform, standardized approach to, and process for, offering postsecondary distance education across state lines: once an individual state clears any necessary legislative or executive requirements and then applies for and is granted admission, institutions in that state may apply and, upon approval, begin to participate. Before SARA, institutions had to navigate different approval and renewal rules, requirements, and calendars from each state, which could be time-consuming, complex, and expensive–many states imposed duplicative or overlapping reporting obligations, charged high fees, or required special bonds or licenses. This created barriers for both institutions who wanted to offer distance education programs to students located in other states and the students who wanted to enroll. By joining SARA, institutions agree to follow certain rules and standards and are thereby authorized to offer distance education to students located in other SARA states–along with streamlining other processes, such as permissions for out-of-state internships–without having to obtain separate approvals from each one. As a condition for participation, institutions agree to perform several kinds of annual reporting, adhere to and maintain consumer protection standards, and abide by the requirements and expectations of their various accreditors and regulators. As of this writing, 49 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands are members of SARA, with more than 2,300 participating institutions. 

Overall, SARA participation greatly simplifies the work we have to do to satisfy the requirements set forth by state and federal governments, two thirds of the so-called “regulatory triad” (which will be discussed further in subsequent installments of this column). In turn, the reduction of the compliance and authorization burden means that we can devote more time, effort, and resources towards creating rich and meaningful online learning experiences and communities for students.

Do you have questions about SARA or state reciprocity/authorization that weren’t answered here? Feel free to drop me a line at brownmh@wfu.edu and we can discuss any of this further.