In early August, the U.S. Department of Education announced its proposal to drop the "12-hour rule," which is a regulation governing the eligibility of students taking distance-education courses to receive federal student aid. The proposal calls for the regulation to be replaced with the "one-day rule" for all higher education institutions that provide federal financial aid. The public has 60 days to comment on the proposed change before the final rule is announced Nov. 1. The complete proposal can be found in the Aug. 8, 2002, Federal Register.

In response to this latest development in the status of the 12-hour rule, Gabriella Gomez, AFT Legislative Department, says, "It’s not a surprise, however, we are disappointed that the Department [of Education] brought this proposed change forward despite the objections of many individuals who participated in the process.  It begs the question of why we should even have a process."

The debate over the 12-hour rule is not a new issue for the education community. The AFT has strongly supported retaining the rule until more data have been collected from the Distance Education Demonstration program. The five-year program was authorized by Congress during the last reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. Until then, AFT and other higher education groups believe the 12-hour rule is a means to ensure integrity in federal student aid programs within higher education institutions and promote "same-time, same-place" interaction between student and instructor.  However, the rule is not embraced by many distance-education providers who believe it restricts the development of innovative programs.

Jeffrey Andrade, deputy assistant secretary for postsecondary education at the Department of Education, told the Chronicle of Higher Education that he doesn’t anticipate any changes between the proposed and final versions of the rule until someone offers a better solution.  The AFT and other higher education groups are concerned about the lack of data on the effects of lifting the 12-hour rule.

Higher education programs that operate on semester, trimester and quarter systems follow the one-day rule. It requires programs that provide federal financial aid to deliver at least a day’s worth of instruction per week. Many distance-education programs do not operate on traditional academic calendars and thus are subject to the 12-hour rule. College programs that do not operate on a semester, trimester, or quarter system currently must deliver at least 12 hours of coursework per week to provide federal financial aid.   [Bette Ann Hubbard]

[September 5, 2002]