If you have any complaints, you can report them to the New York State Department of Education, or NC-SARA (Below)
NYSED’s complaint procedures
The National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA) – Student Complaint Process
Every student deserves a positive educational experience. Sometimes a student’s experience may not be what they anticipate, and the student may have a concern or a complaint.
A student has the right to lodge a complaint or grievance. The institution should ensure that all concerns and complaints of students are addressed fairly and are resolved promptly. Student complaints relating to consumer protection laws offered under the terms and conditions of the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (SARA), must first be filed with the institution to seek resolution.
The student should begin the complaint process with the institution and if resolution is not found, the student would contact the institution’s home state SARA Portal Entity. NC-SARA maintains a directory of SARA State Portal Entities.
Section 4. Consumer Protection
4.1 Applicability
Provisions of the SARA Policy Manual, including those for consumer protection and the resolution of complaints, apply to interstate distance education offered by participating SARA institutions to students in other SARA states. Only those complaints resulting from distance education courses, activities and operations provided by SARA-participating institutions to students in other SARA states come under the coverage of SARA. complaints about a SARA institution’s in-state operations are to be resolved under the state’s normal provisions, not those of SARA.
EXPLANATORY NOTES
N1 – SARA member states continue to have authority to enforce all their general-purpose laws against Non-domestic out-of-state institutions (including SARA-participating institutions) providing distance education in the state, including, but not limited to, those
laws related to consumer protection and fraudulent activities.
4.2 Role of home state
SARA consumer protection provisions require the institution’s home state, through its SARA State Portal Entity, to investigate and resolve allegations of dishonest or fraudulent activity by the state’s SARA-participating institutions, including the provision of false or misleading information.
4.3 Examples of Consumer Protection Issues
Examples of issues that may arise in regard to alleged fraudulent activity, violations of SARA policies or more general complaints about improper activities include, but are not limited to:
a. Veracity of recruitment and marketing materials;
b. Accuracy of job placement data;
c. Accuracy of information about tuition, fees and financial aid;
d. Complete and accurate admission requirements for courses and programs;
e. Accuracy of information about the institution’s accreditation and/or any programmatic/specialized accreditation held by the institution’s programs;
f. Accuracy of information about whether course work meets any relevant Professional Licensing requirements or the requirements of specialized Accrediting Agencies;
g. Accuracy of information about whether the institution’s course work will transfer to other institutions; and
h. Operation of distance education programs consistent with practices expected by institutional accreditors (and, if applicable, programmatic/specialized accreditors) and/or the C-RAC Guidelines for Distance Education.
4.4 Responsibilities for resolving complaints.
a. Institutions operating under SARA policies shall provide their and SARA’s complaint resolution policies and procedures to all students taking courses under SARA policies.
b. Initial responsibility for the investigation and resolution of complaints resides with the institution against which the complaint is made. Further consideration and resolution, if necessary, is the responsibility of the SARA State Portal entity and other responsible agencies of the institution’s home state (see the following sections: Complaint Resolution Processes and Section 2.5 herein).
c. The SARA State Portal Entity is responsible for conducting the investigation and resolution of complaints that are not resolved at the institutional level. The SARA State Portal Entity may enlist the assistance of other responsible entities in the state in carrying out the work of complaint resolution.
4.5 Process for Resolving Complaints
a. Complaints against an institution operating under SARA policies go first through the institution’s own procedures for resolution of grievances. Allegations of criminal offenses or alleged violations of a state’s general-purpose laws may be made directly to the relevant state agencies.
b. Complaints regarding student grades or student conduct violations are governed entirely by institutional policy and the laws of the SARA institution’s home state.
c. If a person bringing a complaint is not satisfied with the outcome of the institutional process for handling complaints, the complaint (except for complaints about grades or student conduct violations) may be appealed, within two years of the incident about which the complaint is made, to the SARA Portal Entity in the home state of the institution against which the complaint has been lodged. That SARA State Portal Entity shall notify the SARA State Portal Entity for the state in which the student is located of receipt of that appealed complaint. The resolution of the complaint by the institution’s home state SARA State Portal Entity, through its SARA complaint resolution process, will be final, except for complaints that fall under the provision “g” below.
d. While the final resolution of the complaint rests with the SARA State Portal Entity in the home state of the institution against which the complaint has been lodged, the SARA State Portal Entity in the complainant’s location state may assist as needed. The final disposition of a complaint resolved by the home state shall be communicated to the SARA State Portal Entity in the state where the student lived at the time of the incident leading to the complaint, if known.
e. While final resolution of complaints (for purposes of adjudication of the complaint and enforcement of any resultant remedies or redress) resides in certain cases with institutions (complaints about grades or student conduct violations), or more generally with the relevant institution’s home state SARA State Portal Entity (all other complaints), the regional compact(s) administering SARA may consider a disputed complaint as a “case file” if concerns are raised against a SARA member state with regard to whether that state is abiding by SARA policies, as promulgated in the SARA Policy Manual. The regional compact may review such institutional concerns in determining whether a state under its SARA purview is abiding by SARA policies. Similarly, a complaint “case file” may also be reviewed by NC-SARA in considering whether a regional compact is ensuring that its SARA member states are abiding by the SARA policies required for their membership in SARA.
f. SARA State Portal Entities shall report quarterly to NC-SARA the number and disposition of appealed complaints that are not resolved at the institutional level. NC-SARA shall make that information publicly available on its website. Such data will create transparency and can be used in determining whether a regional compact is ensuring that its SARA member states and those states’ institutions are abiding by the policies required for state membership and institutional participation in SARA.
g. Nothing in the SARA Policy Manual precludes a state from using its laws of general application to pursue action against an institution that violates those laws.
4.6 Oversight of Complaint investigation.
Investigation of a SARA-related complaint against an institution requires that a state board, agency or entity outside the institution’s immediate management be available to handle complaints that are not resolved within the institution. A system board responsible for more than one separately accredited institution may serve this role under SARA provisions. A board responsible for only one accredited institution, or which lacks enforcement authority over an institution, cannot serve as the SARA external oversight agency for such an institution. In such circumstances, the institution’s home-state SARA State Portal Entity may serve that function.
(Excerpted from the SARA Policy Manual • Version 24.1• July 1, 2024)