The recent U.S. Department of Education’s decision to no longer enforce online educational registration has caused a stir among online ultrasound technician schools. This federal law required all online educational institutions to obtain permission to operate in every state from which students enrolled in.
This new ruling offers wonderful news for online education institutes. However, it does bring to the forefront many concerns relating to state online education laws. The confusion arises when states require the registration or want to authorize the number of students enrolled in online institutions from their state. At one point, states saw an opportunity for additional revenue through state registration fees for online enrollments. In reality most states don’t have the manpower to enforce these laws, and now with the federal regulation gone, most online colleges will simply wait to be reprimanded rather than bother with learning of each state’s registration policies.
The point to all of this, is that the state registration laws are inconsistent. Ultrasound tech schools online, as well as other institutions, still don’t know what kind of state registration is needed, whether there are resident issues or not, or whether state registration fees apply. Students needing to know what states consider online registration to be a physical presence in their state, may find the following list of states is useful: