State Authorization

---

What is State Authorization?

• Most U.S. states regulate online, distance, and correspondence education offered to students located in their jurisdictions.
• WKU Online is actively working to expand access and deliver our fully online undergraduate, graduate, and certificate programs in every state.
• Kentucky is a member of the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (SARA) and WKU is an approved SARA institution.
• WKU determines student location in accordance with federal regulations.

 

Please note: WKU participates in the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement, which establishes a framework for offering distance education in participating states and territories. SARA does not eliminate all state-specific requirements though. In some cases, additional restrictions may apply, particularly for programs tied to professional licensure, certification, clinical placements, internships, or other supervised field experiences.

Although California is not a SARA member, WKU can currently offer distance education to students located in that state.

For more information about SARA, please visit nc-sara.org.

 

---

Data Reporting Requirements

As a SARA member, WKU must report data annually. Each spring, NC-SARA requires institutions to report the number of exclusively distance education enrollments for each state as well as those participating in out-of-state learning placements (OOSLP) for all academic programs regardless of modality.

WKU Online works with Institutional Research to collect the online student enrollment data. Out-of-state learning placement information for the previous calendar year is collected from the academic departments and then submitted to NC-SARA during the Summer reporting window.

 

---

Complaints

Students who have complaints against the school regarding their online program can learn more about the Complaint Resolution Process here.