Why are there state restrictions?

[ss20ts]

I was looking at Rasmussen College for their CBE MBA this morning. Looked interesting until I go to the very end and it says the program is not open to residents of Connecticut, New York, and Rhode Island. I saw a thread on here recently about an online program not open to Rhode Island and thought that was odd. Now I'm really curious why Rasmussen's program isn't open to 3 states. I live in NY and we've had online learning and self learning through independent study so this really confuses me. We have an entire SUNY (state university system) school that has always been about adult learning through distance learning - Empire State College (ESC). I find this very odd and wondered if anyone knew why this is happening. I understand certain programs such as nursing and education are restricted due to licensing, however, licensing isn't an issue with an MBA.

[Old Guy]

I was looking at Rasmussen College for their CBE MBA this morning. Looked interesting until I go to the very end and it says the program is not open to residents of Connecticut, New York, and Rhode Island. I saw a thread on here recently about an online program not open to Rhode Island and thought that was odd. Now I'm really curious why Rasmussen's program isn't open to 3 states. I live in NY and we've had online learning and self learning through independent study so this really confuses me. We have an entire SUNY (state university system) school that has always been about adult learning through distance learning - Empire State College (ESC). I find this very odd and wondered if anyone knew why this is happening. I understand certain programs such as nursing and education are restricted due to licensing, however, licensing isn't an issue with an MBA.

I am not sure if this is the problem but some states require that schools enrolling distance student's in their state be licensed in their state.  Some schools may find it too much trouble.

[ss20ts]

I was looking at Rasmussen College for their CBE MBA this morning. Looked interesting until I go to the very end and it says the program is not open to residents of Connecticut, New York, and Rhode Island. I saw a thread on here recently about an online program not open to Rhode Island and thought that was odd. Now I'm really curious why Rasmussen's program isn't open to 3 states. I live in NY and we've had online learning and self learning through independent study so this really confuses me. We have an entire SUNY (state university system) school that has always been about adult learning through distance learning - Empire State College (ESC). I find this very odd and wondered if anyone knew why this is happening. I understand certain programs such as nursing and education are restricted due to licensing, however, licensing isn't an issue with an MBA.

I am not sure if this is the problem but some states require that schools enrolling distance student's in their state be licensed in their state.  Some schools may find it too much trouble.

Interesting. Weird how a college would have to register in every state. Seems odd since they're regional accredited. Kind of seems to make that pointless. The whole college world is strange though.

[freeloader]

From an Inside Higher Ed article:

“Under these rules, all higher education institutions offering online programs must demonstrate they are authorized to operate in every state where they enroll students who receive federal financial aid. The institutions must also clearly publish their refund policies and complaint procedures. They're also required to disclose to students studying professions that require state licensure, such as nursing or teaching, whether an online program qualifies them to practice their chosen profession where they live.”

This was one of the efforts by the Obama Administration to try to bring accountability to higher education, particularly for-profit education providers who, relatively speaking, gobbled up lots of assets (federal student loans and Pell grants) and graduated so few students. Unfortunately, the administration wasn’t able to target only the worst offending/lowest performing for-profit schools, so they had to implement regulations on all online educators, regulations that can be burdensome for smaller schools. Of course, most states set up reciprocity agreements that streamlined these approvals.

Reference:
https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-l...ion-online