SREB SARA Documents

State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (SARA) is an agreement among its member states, districts and U.S. territories that establishes comparable national standards for interstate offerings of postsecondary distance education courses and programs. It is intended to make it easier for students to take online courses offered by postsecondary institutions in a state other than the one where they reside. SARA is overseen by a national council and administered by four regional higher education compacts, MHEC, NEBHE, SREB and WICHE. The four SARA agreements of these compacts are collectively referred to as the agreements.

SECRRA to SARA: Treatment of Florida Institutions

The Florida legislature has passed legislation enabling the state to apply to become a member of SARA. The governor signed that legislation June 9, 2017. Several additional steps are necessary before Florida institutions may participate in SARA. The Postsecondary Reciprocal Distance Education Coordinating Council established by Florida’s legislation must now meet and vote to have the state join SARA; the state would then submit its completed application to SREB for consideration and approval. SREB’s approval must be secured before the state can invite its eligible institutions to participate in SARA and review and approve their applications. And finally, state-approved institutions must pay their respective fees to NC-SARA and the state of Florida before becoming SARA participants. Florida institutions offering distance education in the region will therefore likely face a gap in needed state authorizations: their out-of-state distance education activities will no longer be covered by SECRRA, and they cannot yet be covered by SARA. Under SECRRA, courses that students start by June 30, 2017, as listed on the Electronic Campus, will benefit from the reciprocity agreement of SECRRA. Courses that students begin on or after July 1, 2017, will not be covered by SECRRA-based agreements.Under the circumstances, and in the absence of any definitive formal policy, while each state will exercise its own discretion, we ask that states do whatever they can to facilitate this transition between SECRRA-based and SARA-based institutional authorization to operate in their respective jurisdictions.

Read the Memo From Dave Spence and Marshall Hill Below