The State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (SARA) is an agreement among member states, districts and territories that establishes comparable national standards for interstate offering of post-secondary distance education courses and programs. It is intended to make it easier for students to take online courses offered by post-secondary institutions based in another state. SARA is overseen by a National Council and administered by four regional education compacts.

The members of SARA are states, not institutions or students. Therefore a state “joins” or becomes a “member” of SARA while a college or university “operates under” or “participates in” SARA. States join SARA through their respective regional compact.

NOTE: The District of Columbia and U.S. Territories that are part of a regional compact are also eligible to join SARA.

No. Any degree-granting institution in the U.S. must be authorized to issue degrees by a government. This is typically a state but it can also be Congress or an Indian tribe. SARA pertains to approval of distance education courses and programs offered across state lines by institutions that already have degree authorization in at least one state. What SARA does is centralize the authorization process for each institution in a single state called the institution’s “home state.” Colleges or universities in a SARA state therefore only need their home state authorization to offer distance education to any other SARA member state.

Illinois is a member of the Midwest Higher Education Compact (MHEC), one of four statutorily-created interstate compacts which aims to "provide greater higher education opportunities and services in the Midwestern region."  MHEC also includes the states of Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.  MHEC is working with the other interstate compacts (see map above) to successfully implement SARA across all member states in the country.  In other words, MHEC is the portal through which Illinois' individual institutions are able to participate in SARA.

Review the following documents:

• SARA Overview

Visit the following websites:

• National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA)
• Midwest Higher Education Compact (MHEC)