Department of Education Findings re: Institutions’ Compliance with Distance Education under Title IV

On December 4, 2018, NSLDN submitted two FOIA requests to the United States Department of Education seeking documents related to the “regular and substantive interaction” requirement for distance education programs offered by institutions participating in Title IV of the Higher Education Act.

NSLDN’s first request seeks Federal Student Aid’s (“FSA”) Final Audit Determinations for two specific providers of distance education: Western Governors University and Colorado Technical University.

NSLDN’s second request seeks all documents constituting Final Program Review Determinations or Final Audit Determinations issued by FSA from 2012 to the present that contain the term “regular and substantive interaction.”

On May 24, 2019 the Department provided a final response to the request regarding Colorado Technical University. The response letter is available here. The responsive documents are available here. 

On September 26, 2019 the Department provided a final response to the second request, regarding "regular and substative interaction." The response letter is available here. The responsive documents are available here (large file).