Substantive Changes

Updates and announcements

  • SACSCOC has revised its Substantive Change Policy and Procedures. The Board of Trustees approved revisions on June 12, 2025.  The revised policy takes effect immediately.
    • Two documents are available:
      • the  revised policy
      • and a markup version with
        • a summary of all changes,
        • redlines of each change, and
        • select comments and explanations of changes.
    • Important: To ensure you’re seeing the latest revision, refresh your browser page after you’ve opened the document.  You can confirm you have the current version of the policy by checking the revision date (June 2025) at the bottom of the document in the “Document History:  Procedures” section.
  • A new three-part webinar series covering new policy revisions to level change obligations, pending approval by the SACSCOC Board of Trustees, will be held Monday, June 23; Tuesday, June 24; and Wednesday, June 25, 2025, at 11am ET. Registration and more information can be found HERE
  • New feature: You will now receive an email alert when a substantive change response letter is available for download in the Institutional Portal.
  • A one-day, in-person substantive change workshop will be offered as a pre-conference workshop at the Southeastern Association for Community College Research (SACCR) conference on Monday, September 8, 2025, in Biloxi, Mississippi.  Registration and more information can be found HERE
  • A one-day, in-person substantive change workshop will be offered as a pre-conference workshop at the Virginia Regional Accreditation Symposium (VRAS) annual conference, tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, November 19, 2025, in Hampton Roads, Virginia.  Registration information will be made available as soon as possible.
  • New additions and updates to the PEP resource folder for Prison Education Programs, including the reference Cross-Agency Collaboration for Quality Correctional Education from The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS).  #Tip: Sort by date to see newest items; sort by name to see similar items.
  • Prison Education Program (PEP) alert:  The Vera Institute has released The Best Interest Determination Toolkit: Guidance for Oversight Entities. This can also be accessed from SACSCOC’s PEP Resource Folder.
  • subchange@sacscoc.org:  To help us serve you better and quicker, we’re simplifying how you contact us about substantive change.
    • Your inquiries will be automatically routed to the person best suited to answer your question.
    • You’ll receive our replies from this same email address, so please add it to your safe senders list to prevent messages from going to spam.
    • This email address will also send important notifications when we need more information to complete a review — i.e., deferrals — so it’s crucial these messages reach you.
  • Substantive Change Committee Review Stages [PDF]:  a one-page reference of review stages, definitions, and typical sequence
  • Prison Education Program (PEP) information
    • A publicly available PEP resource folder contains information from multiple sources for your reference. New and recently added items are noted.
    • Multiple on-demand PEP webinars are available. SACSCOC webinars are free and publicly available without restriction.
    • The Substantive Change Policy and Procedures is the guiding document for SACSCOC’s roll in PEP reviews and approvals. PEP requirements continue to evolve; monitor the substantive change policy for new or different requirements.
    • The U.S. Department of Education (USDE) has a comprehensive and regularly updated PEP questions and answers webpage for your reference.

Upcoming dates and deadlines

Note:  All Substantive Change submissions must be made using the institutional portal.

  • July 1, 2025: Deadline to submit substantive changes to be implemented January 1, 2026, through June 30, 2026, requiring notification or requiring approval by the Executive Council of the SACSCOC Board of Trustees. Refer to the Substantive Change Policy and Procedures for guidance for a specific substantive change type.
  • September 1, 2025: Deadline to submit substantive changes requiring approval by the SACSCOC Board of Trustees in December 2025.  Carefully review the Substantive Change Policy and Procedures to determine if a substantive change type or the institution’s status (viz., sanction) requires Board review at a regularly scheduled biannual meeting or if the change can be reviewed by the Executive Council of the Board:  different deadlines apply.  See also “Board review pathways” and “Off-campus Instructional Site Approval” by extensive review in the substantive change policy.
Note:  All Substantive Change submissions must be made using the institutional portal.

Substantive change policy and related policies

Webinars

Upcoming webinars:

On-demand webinars:

Documents and Templates