Programs that meet the following regulatory definition.

Designed to meet educational requirements for a specific professional license or certification that is required for employment in an occupation, OR, Advertised as meeting such requirement.

Questions to help determine if a program is subject to the regulations.

1. What credential does the program lead to?
2. What occupation does the program prepare students for?
3. Does a State require the credential in order for an individual to be employed in the occupation?

Note: Programs that lead to a state issued credential (license/certification) that is not required for one to be employed in the occupation are not subject to the regulation.

For example:
An accounting program that prepares students to be a Certified Public Accountant, CPA. The CPA credential is a state-issued credential. Unless the State requires the CPA license for an individual to be employed as an accountant, an accounting program would not be treated as a program designed or advertised as leading to licensure or certification required for employment.

Departments are asked to complete the Program State/Territory Determination Matrix with their determination for each state, district, and territory and provide their determination to distance@tamu.edu.

The Office of the Registrar will collect each program's determination to ensure the University is compliant with these new federal regulations. The Office of the Registrar will request updates regarding your program's determination on an annual basis in the spring semester to coincide with the yearly catalog updates. However, we expect departments to provide updates if the determination changes at any time throughout the year.

The state by state determination is to be made public and listed on a webpage that is readily accessible from the program website.

Disclosure statement templates have been created for departmental use. The statements have been reviewed and approved by the Office of General Counsel for departmental use. The statements should not be altered; however, it is permissible to add pertinent information regarding licensure (i.e., experience requirements). Please use the General and Direct Disclosure Templates to implement the delivery of the required disclosures.

General/Public Disclosure - 34 CFR 668.43 (a) (5) (v) 

You are to post a general disclosure that shows your determination for all states/territories. Our recommendation is that the general disclosure be placed on a central location on your college/department website to ensure your program can be linked directly to the disclosure information. It should be easily accessible to your prospective and current students.  

The URL of where the public disclosure is located must be sent to distance@tamu.edu.

To view examples of general/public disclosures, you may visit Texas A&M University Professional Licensure or Certification Programs. The list of programs leading to professional licensure or certification will direct you to each program's general disclosure and state/territory determination.

Direct/Individualized Disclosure - 34 CFR 668.43 (c)

Direct disclosures must be made to prospective and current students located in states where you determine that the program’s curriculum does not meet state requirements, or a determination has not been made. 

Additionally, Texas A&M University is a member of the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (NC-SARA). NC-SARA is an agreement between member U.S. states, territories, and districts, which allows our institution to offer distance programs and on the ground courses within member state borders. NC-SARA participating institutions must provide licensing board contact information to the students or applicants when unable to make a determination. (NC-SARA manual​)

To this extent, you are to provide the student with the state licensing board contact information where they are located. The Office of the Registrar has made a State Licensing Board Directory available for reference. This directory may be used as a resource for obtaining state specific information to provide to the student.

You are to use the direct disclosure statement template to formulate a letter/email to your students. A notice must be provided to prospective students prior to enrollment.

Certain events trigger a direct disclosure to be made: 

Prospective students
 

• If a prospective student is located in a state/territory where the curriculum does not meet educational requirements, or the institution has not made a determination, then a notice must be made before they enroll in the program.
• Prior to enrollment in the program means prior to the student signing an enrollment agreement, or in the event that an institution does not provide an enrollment agreement, before the student makes a financial commitment to the institution. (As provided in the Federal Register Announcement)

Current students

1. A program’s determination changes to does not meet for a particular state/territory. 

• The student(s) located in that state/territory must be directly notified of the change within 14 days of the determination.

2. Student location changes.

• Upon receipt of information that the student moves to a state/territory where the curriculum does not meet educational requirements, or the institution has not made a determination.

A copy of the direct disclosure letters that your program will use must be sent to distance@tamu.edu.  

Disclosures are to be provided to students based on their physical location.

For purposes of the required disclosures, current students' locations shall be determined by a student's self-reported location from Howdy. As part of the class registration process, all students are required to provide the location of where they will be physically located when taking the course for the semester and are obligated to update if they relocate. Prospective students' locations shall be determined from the state listed on the student's application for admission or from the contact information you collect from prospects.   

Compass reports have been created that capture current students' location responses by term. The name of the report is PWS_LOCATION_HOWDY_RESPONSE_XX, where 'XX' is the two-character college code. The reports can be accessed through the Compass Report Repository, and they contain a list of all students and the program they are pursuing within the specified college.

If you do not have access to the report, a request can be made through your department's PAA. You should request the associated college "Group Name" to access the location report for your college.

College	Group Name
AC	G_REGI_DIST_ED_AC_002
AG	G_REGI_DIST_ED_AG_001
AT	G_REGI_DIST_ED_AT_010
BA	G_REGI_DIST_ED_BA_003
DT	G_REGI_DIST_ED_DT_018
EH	G_REGI_DIST_ED_EH_004
EN	G_REGI_DIST_ED_EN_006
EX	G_REGI_DIST_ED_EX_022
GB	G_REGI_DIST_ED_GB_007
GS	G_REGI_DIST_ED_GS_009
MN	G_REGI_DIST_ED_MN_019
NS	G_REGI_DIST_ED_NS_020
PH	G_REGI_DIST_ED_PH_021
PM	G_REGI_DIST_ED_PM_017
SL	G_REGI_DIST_ED_SL_012
VF	G_REGI_DIST_ED_VF_022
VT	G_REGI_DIST_ED_VT_013
GV	G_REGI_DIST_ED_GV_014

Please use existing reports that you may have from the Office of Admissions or other resources at your disposal to gather prospective student locations.