1

Proposal regarding the Department’s draft reporting requirements 

(668.409) and disclosure requirements (668.410) for GE programs

The informal disclosure working group urges the Department to strengthen the 

language in its proposed drafts of sections 668.409 (reporting requirements) and 

668.410 (disclosure requirements). The draft requirements in these two sections fall 

short of (1) capturing complete data, and (2) disclosing material information in a clear 

and meaningful manner.

Reporting data as well as disclosing it (668.409 and 410) 

Preliminarily, it is important to underscore that the Department can legally 

require institutions to report program-level aggregate data to NCES to be stored in 

IPEDS. See, Ass'n of Private Sector Colleges & Univs. v. Duncan, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 

37355 *31 (D.D.C. Mar. 19, 2013). Further, the rationale behind why the Department 

should require institutions to report in addition to disclose key data about GE programs

is well-founded.

 Reporting, in addition to disclosing data, would better ensure that students and 

families have timely information to inform decisions about whether a GE program 

matches their desired outcomes, i.e. on-time completion, jobs and earnings. Reporting 

the data also allows policymakers access to information about GE programs that can 

help them examine outcomes other than those used to calculate program eligibility 

metrics. 

Students would have a much easier time finding the information if, in addition to 

requiring schools to disclose it, the Department required the data reported and 

collected in a central location.1

 The Department would be able to publish the 

information in its consumer materials, such as College Navigator and College Scorecards. 

This means that institutions must be required to report the information in question to 

the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) on a regular basis in a format that 

will allow consumers to compare colleges to one another. Doing so would require 

institutions to follow standard formats and definitions.

Presenting certain consumer information in a consistent manner and in one 

location is not a novel concept. Take for instance the 1990 Student Right-to-Know Act

("Student Right-to-Know and Campus Security Act" (P.L. 101-542), Title I, Section 103). 

Congress established the Act to clearly define the six-year graduation rate that is often 

used today to compare institutions. The Act made graduation rate calculations 

 1 The current gainful employment program disclosures on college websites are frequently very difficult to 

find and understand. See Appendix F of TICAS’ comments on topics to be included in the Department of 

Education’s negotiated rulemaking (June 2013): 

http://www.ticas.org/files/pub/TICAS_June_2013_neg_reg_comments.pdf.
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consistent across institutions. At least one study has found that giving parents of highschool-age children consistent, comparable information about college graduation rates 

increases the likelihood of their choosing colleges with higher rates. Parents in the study 

with less income, less education, and less knowledge of the college application process 

were particularly responsive to graduation rate information.2

 

Furthermore, without a reporting requirement in addition to a disclosure 

requirement, schools may not comply with the disclosure requirement at all. In 2011 

the Education Sector and the American Enterprise Institute conducted a study of 300 

institutions that found that the vast majority of the institutions did not disclose their 

graduation rates for Pell Grant recipients, one of the disclosure requirements in the 

2008 Higher Education Opportunity Act.3 This lack of compliance hampers the ability of 

consumers and policymakers to understand which colleges not only enroll substantial 

numbers of low-income Pell Grant recipients, but also graduate them. Simply put, by 

requiring institutions to report the data in addition to disclose the data, the Department 

would be in a much better position to enforce the reporting and disclosure 

requirements. 

Reported and Disclosed Program-level Data must include all students in GE programs

(668.409 and 668.410)

Excluding the reporting requirements that are in place for purposes of 

calculating the debt-to-income metric, any program-level reporting and disclosure 

requirement must include not only “students” as defined in 34 CFR 600.2 who receive 

title IV, HEA funds, but rather all students enrolled in a GE program during an award 

year regardless of how they pay for tuition. Data pertaining to all students enrolled in a 

GE program will provide a complete picture of the program, meaningful to a broader 

spectrum of students who may or may not need to take out federal student aid to enroll 

in the program. Further, if all students are included in reporting and disclosures then GE 

programs with low numbers of federal student aid borrowers will have sufficient 

information to report. Finally, the Department regularly and legally collects data on 

students who do not receive Title IV assistance from institutions at the aggregate level 

through IPEDS surveys. See, Ass'n of Private Sector Colleges & Univs., LEXIS 37355 *27.

The Department’s disclosure regulation should require certain material data to be 

included in a preliminary disclosure template and allow the Secretary to develop a 

final disclosure template through consumer testing (668.410)

 2 Andrew P. Kelly and Mark Schneider, Filling in the Blanks: How Information Can Affect Choice in Higher 

Education (Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 2011). 3 Kevin Cary and Andrew P. Kelly, The Truth Behind Higher Education Disclosure Laws, (Washington, DC: 

American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 2011).
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Under the current regulations in effect today, the Department has the authority to 

issue a disclosure template (668.6(b)(2)(iv): The institution must “use the disclosure 

form issued by the secretary to provide the information in paragraph (b)(1), and other 

information, when that form is available.”) However the Department has not finalized

such a template. In late 2012, the Department issued an Electronic Announcement #42 

on Disclosures for Gainful Employment Programs in which it stated that the Department 

was waiting for the court to rule on the Department’s request to reinstate the GE 

reporting requirements. The Court ultimately denied the Department’s request, but this 

ruling did not negate the Department’s ability to issue a disclosure template. The

Department advised institutions that “[u]ntil the template is available, institutions must 

make the GE program disclosure using an institutionally-determined format” that 

includes all of the data required to be disclosed under 668.6(b)(1) and calculate the 

median loan debt for each program themselves. See, Gainful Employment Electronic 

Announcement #42 at 

http://www.ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/112312GEAnnounce42DisclosureofGEProgra

ms1112.html. 

The lack of a disclosure template, coupled with a lack of more specific language 

about where and how disclosures should be made to consumers, has led to a situation 

where schools hide or obscure the disclosures, place them deep within their web sites

and/or make them difficult to understand.

Accordingly, based on the current regulations (668.6) we urge the Department to

immediately devise and publish a preliminary disclosure template for comment and 

require covered institutions to use it. Gainful employment programs must continue to 

use the Preliminary Disclosure Template until July 1, 2015 when they must switch to 

using a final Disclosure Template. The final disclosure template should be developed 

through the process described below. 

The final disclosure template must – not may -- include certain of the information 

listed under the current regulation in 668.6(b)(1), including SOC codes related to the GE 

program, tuition and fees, books, room and board, placement rates for completers, and

median loan debt. The on-time graduation rate (668.6(b)(1)(ii)), as calculated under the 

current regulations, is potentially misleading and the draft regulations address this 

concern with a revised definition (668.410(f)); the draft completion rate calculation 

must be included in the template. 

In addition, the Department must include the relevant educational prerequisites for 

professional licensure associated with the GE program as well information about its 

programmatic accreditation (or lack thereof). The language for draft paragraph 

410(a)(9) should therefore be expanded to include not only “educational prerequisites 

for professional licensure in the State” but also “other requirements that are generally 

needed to be employed in the fields for which the training is provided.” Eligible 

institutions are already required to not misrepresent this information pursuant to 
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STUDENT WARNING: On average, students who completed this 

program did not earn enough money to be able to make the 

regular student loan payments needed to pay off their loans over 

10 years. The program must show a lower student debt 

compared to how much graduates earn or the program will no 

longer be able to participate in the federal student aid 

program. This means a student enrolled in this program may not 

be able to receive federal student aid to pay for the cost of 

attending this program after [insert year]. The school provides 

some options for current and prospective students enrolled in 

this program: [insert options allowed under 407(c)(1)(ii)].

668.74(f). This additional language is intended to capture the link between 

programmatic accreditation and employment. Often a state may not require 

certification but employers within that state do; and without a degree or certificate 

from a programmatically accredited program, a person is unable to obtain the 

certification and/or the job that was represented by the school.

The above key pieces of information are material to students’ enrollment decisions. 

Furthermore, the HEA requires this information to be made available. See, 

http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2010/2010831rev.pdf at p. B-2 and B-3. 

In cases where the Secretary issues a notice of determination that a GE program 

could become ineligible based on its final eligibility metric (assuming for the moment 

the metric is only debt-to-income) for the subsequent award year, pursuant to 668.407, 

then the institution must include on the disclosure template for the specific program at 

the top of the template as a boxed warning, in a bolded font size larger than any other 

print on the page, the following: 

The above “student warning” satisfies Judge Contreras’ concerns articulated in 

footnote 7 on *32. Therein, the court stated: 

Because the court vacates and remands the entire regulation, it need not address 

the Association’s argument that the debt measures violate the First Amendment by 

requiring that programs that fail the debt measure test in two out of three years 

must disclose that “a student who enrolls or continues to enroll in the program 

should expect to have difficulty repaying his or her student loans.” Debt Measure 

Rule, 76 Fed. Reg at 34,432. The government may require the commercial disclosure 

of “purely factual and uncontroversial information” as long as there is a rational 

justification for the means of disclosure and it is intended to prevent consumer 

confusion, see Zauderer v. Office of Disciplinary Counsel, 471 U.S. 626, 651 (1985), 
5

but the court doubts that the statement that every student in a program “should 

expect to have difficulty repaying his or her student loans” is a purely factual one.

The Secretary’s position that it is deceptive to advertise a program and invite 

students to enroll in that program when the school knows that the program may not be 

eligible to participate in the federal student loan program under the gainful 

employment metric, and the school does not otherwise disclose that fact to students, is 

reasonable enough to support a requirement that information regarding the program’s 

status under the gainful employment metric be disclosed. See, Zauderer v. Office of 

Disciplinary Counsel of Supreme Court, 471 U.S. 626, 649-653 (U.S. 1985)(finding the 

position that it is deceptive to employ advertising that refers to contingent-fee 

arrangements without mentioning the client's liability for costs is reasonable enough to 

support a requirement that information regarding the client's liability for costs be 

disclosed). 

Further, if an institution does not disclose a warning about a GE program that may 

lose eligibility and its implications to students, the very absence of the warning has a 

tendency to mislead as it gives the appearance that the failing GE program is just like 

every other GE program at the school, i.e. eligible to participate in the federal student 

aid program, when that may not be the case. See Id. at 652 (noting that “When the 

possibility of deception is as self-evident as it is in this case, we need not require the 

State to "conduct a survey of the . . . public before it [may] determine that the 

[advertisement] had a tendency to mislead"). So long as the Secretary’s disclosures are 

intended to combat the problem of inherently misleading commercial advertisements 

about the eligibility of programs and they entail only an accurate statement of the 

program’s legal status and the consequences of the status, the disclosures will stand. 

Milavetz, Gallop & Milavetz, P.A. v. United States, 559 U.S. 229, 230-231 (U.S. 2010). 

The Secretary should conduct consumer testing to determine a final disclosure 

template and method of disclosure

The disclosure regulation should also allow the Secretary to add additional 

disclosures to the final disclosure template once the Department conducts consumer 

testing and receives public comment on the template. This will allow the Secretary to 

gather consumer feedback and develop a meaningful disclosure template that informs 

students and arms them with the information they need to make informed decisions 

about GE programs. 

Other federal agencies have utilized different forms of consumer testing to develop 

disclosure templates. For example, the Federal Reserve conducted consumer testing of 

mortgage broker disclosures in 2008 

(http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/bcreg/20080714regzconstest.pdf)

and, more recently, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau solicited consumer and 

lender input regarding new mortgage disclosures 
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(http://www.consumerfinance.gov/knowbeforeyouowe/). The Department could 

specify in the regulations how the consumer testing should be administered, similar to 

language included in the Smarter Borrowing Act (S. 546), which is a bill introduced in 

March 2013 to amend entrance counseling and exit counseling for borrowers under the 

HEA. We have provided some suggested language based off of the Smarter Borrowing 

act:

668.409

(b)The Secretary will determine the format of the 

disclosure and whether additional information shall be 

included in the template through the following procedure:

(1) Not later than 3 months after this rule is 

published in the federal register, the Secretary shall 

establish a process for consumer testing the disclosure 

template.

(2)The Secretary shall ensure that the consumer 

testing described in this section lasts not longer than 6 

months after the process for consumer testing has been 

established under subsection (b)(1).

(c) Use of Consumer Testing Results- The Secretary shall 

use the results of the consumer testing in the development 

of the disclosure template. In a notice published in the 

Federal Register the Secretary will seek public comment on 

the Disclosure Template.

(d) Final Disclosure Template- Not later than July 1, 2015 

the Secretary shall publish the new disclosure template in 

the Federal Register.
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(e) Preliminary Disclosure Template- On the same day the 

Secretary publishes this rule in the Federal Register, the 

Secretary will publish a preliminary disclosure template. 

Gainful employment programs must use the Preliminary 

Disclosure Template not later than 30 days after it is 

published in the federal register. Gainful employment 

programs must continue to use the Preliminary Disclosure 

Template until July 1, 2015. Gainful employment programs 

must switch from using the Preliminary Disclosure Template 

to the Disclosure Template not later than August 1, 2015. 

The Disclosure Regulations should require institutions to clearly and conspicuously 

disclose the disclosure template (668.410)

The Department’s draft language in 410 specifies that the institutions must 

provide only a “prominent and direct link (one click) to the disclosure template for that 

program.” The language “prominent” was used in the current regulations (668.6) and 

largely ignored by institutions.4

 We have observed institutions that lump all gainful 

employment program disclosures into a single PDF that is four to five clicks deep into 

the school’s web site. The Department has already advised schools that the current 

regulations do not allow them to lump all of the GE program disclosures into a single 

central location, but it is not specified in the regulations. See, D-Q17 and D-A17 on 

Gainful Employment – Frequently Asked Questions at 

www.ifap.ed.gov/gainfulemploymentinfo/2011GEFAQ.html. Because of these abuses, 

we recommend requiring the disclosure template to appear clearly and conspicuously 

on the web pages that discuss the GE programs rather than allowing schools to link to 

the information. 

 4 Schools haphazardly apply the current regulations and hide disclosures in long lists of links with 

meaningless names. The links are often not from the page that describes the degree program. For 

example, in order to find the required disclosures under the current regulation, at one school’s site: 

nothing on the program home pages; nothing on the career services page; along the top there is a list of 

links and one is called “Why [school name]?” If you hover the mouse over the button, you get a 

dropdown that includes “useful links” and “disclosures”; and if you click on the button, you do not get 

these links; if you click on “useful links” you get a long list of information and halfway down you get 

“employment placement”; and when you click on it you get aggregated rates in a chart and there is no 

explanation how the school arrived at the numbers.
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Similarly, the draft language states that all promotional materials about the GE 

program made available to prospective students must include the information on the

disclosure template in a “prominent manner” but then states that the school may use a 

URL or link if space on the promotional material precludes the full disclosure of the 

information. This exception may swallow the rule since the invitations, flyers, billboards 

and ads on radio, TV, and the Internet impose “space and airtime constraints.” That 

said, the URL name must be named and placed conspicuously. The Department’s choice 

for a URL name, “Important Federal Student Aid Information You Need to Know,” 

sounds like just another government disclosure rather than information about jobs, 

salaries and student loan debt. The name should be revised to reflect its relevance and 

importance. Recommended language is described below.

Disclosures on Web sites and in Promotional Materials

The Department’s draft language for “how” and “where” disclosures shall be 

made on institution’s web sites needs more specificity. Institutions’ websites have 

become more complicated and often disclosures are buried by the number of clicks 

required to reach them, by uninformative headings that steer people away from the 

disclosures, or by other means that obscure the information. For this reason, the 

Department should use language that requires the institution to provide the disclosures 

“prominently, clearly and conspicuously” on its Web site. 

The standard of “clearly and conspicuously” has been defined by the Federal 

Trade Commission: 

“Clear and Conspicuous” means that a disclosure is reasonably understandable 

and designed to call attention to the nature and significance of the information 

in the disclosure. More specifically, it means that the disclosure must be: (a) 

disclosed in such size, contrast (shade) and location that it is readily noticeable 

and readable; (b) does not contradict any other information provided in any 

manner; and (c) presented in close proximity to any other statement that it 

modifies, explains, or clarifies. With respect to any visual disclosures, to be 

“clear and conspicuous” they must be of sufficient size and contrast and of a 

sufficient duration to be easily read. See, 16 C.F.R. § 313.3(b).

The FTC routinely publishes guidance about how to comply with the “clearly and 

conspicuously” standard in order to avoid misrepresenting material information that 

consumers rely on to make informed decisions. See, .Com Disclosures: How to Make 

Effective Disclosures in Digital Advertising, Federal Trade Commission, March 2013, at 

http://ftc.gov/os/2013/03/130312dotcomdisclosures.pdf. The FTC provides the 

following guidance in its .Com Disclosures publication, which is instructive for how the 

Department can strengthen the gainful employment requirements for disclosures on 

institutions’ web sites and in promotional materials:
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• Do not assume consumers read the entire website 

• Scrolling increases the risk that consumers will miss a disclosure

• If disclosures require scrolling then place text or visual cues to encourage 

consumers to scroll. A scroll bar isn’t sufficient. 

• Instructions should be clear.5

• If scrolling is necessary for the disclosure then it should be unavoidable (e.g. 

consumer cannot click forward without scrolling through the disclosure) 

• Optimize websites for mobile devices and tablets so consumers do not have to 

scroll left or right to see disclosures. 

• Place disclosure near trigger claim.

• Do not place disclosure after a large blank space, unrelated information or 

graphics because the consumer might not see the disclosure or think it’s 

unrelated. 

• Disclosures that are an integral part of a claim or inseparable should not be 

communicated through a hyperlink. This is particularly true for information 

about cost. 

• Use a hyperlink if disclosures are too complex to describe adjacent to a claim. 

• Hyperlink should be clearly labeled and should appear adjacent to the claim. 

o Hyperlinks that say “disclaimer, more information, details, terms and 

conditions” are inadequate. 

o Hyperlinks should not be symbols. 

o Hyperlinks should take the consumer directly to the information.

• Disclosures must take place prior to purchase.

• Do not use disclosures via pop-ups because they can be blocked by software.

• Repetition of disclosures may be necessary if the website and/or the application 

is lengthy. 

With respect to promotional materials on the Internet:

• If using a teaser ad that leads to a website, then put disclosure prominently on 

website so the consumer will be directed to it.

• The size of a disclosure should be compared to the size, text and color of the ad. 

Format in a similar manner so the consumer can relate back the disclosure with 

the claim. 

• Account for viewing differences with smartphones, computers and tablets. 

Optimize so the disclosure is clear and conspicuous on all devices. 

With respect to social media, such as Facebook and Twitter:

• Disclosure can be easily incorporated in space constrained ad with either a link 

directly to disclosure or disclosure itself within the ad 

 5 e.g. “See below for important information about jobs and debt” is more clear than a general instruction 

such as “See below for more information.” 
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• Twitter: do not assume consumers will see each constrained ad, include 

disclosure or link in every ad. 

• If using a teaser ad that leads to a website, then put disclosure prominently on

website. 

With respect to promotional materials in print, such as newspaper, magazine, flyers, 

billboards:

• Fine print or footnotes cannot be used to disclaim, limit, or explain claims made 

elsewhere in the ad. 

• Consider: prominence, presentation, placement and proximity. Fine print may 

be inadequate to modify a claim elsewhere in the ad 

• Do not assume consumers read every word on a printed page.

With respect to multimedia, including television, audio, commercials on the computer:

• If you make an audio claim, use an audio disclosures 

• If you make a written claims, use a written disclosure 

• If there is a visual claim, use a visual disclosure for a sufficient duration 

• Even if consumers are viewing through multiple media (surfing the web or tv) 

this does not relieve requirement that disclosures be made clearly and 

conspicuously.

Disclosures provided to prospective students

The draft language in 410 requires intuitions to provide to each prospective 

student as a separate document at the time the institution first provides the student 

information about the program and at the time the student enrolls in the program, a 

copy of the disclosure template. This is a step in the right direction, but it does not go 

far enough to properly inform students about the key information and outcomes 

associated with the GE program(s). 

The admissions interview is critical. State attorneys general have observed 

admissions consultants orally misrepresenting key pieces of information, such as tuition 

costs, jobs and earnings, and transfer of credits during admissions interviews. See, State 

of Colorado, ex rel. John Suthers v. Alta Colleges d/b/a Westwood College, 12CV1600, 

Complaint filed March 14, 2012: 

http://www.coloradoattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/Westwood%20complaint.p

df. Written disclosures that contradict the oral statements are hidden in bulky 

enrollment agreements and paperwork. Students decide to enroll in a particular 

program based on the sunny statements – often about potential careers and earnings --

from the admissions consultants only to realize later that the tuition costs are 

substantially more than what was represented, the actual jobs and earnings related to 

the program are dismal, and the students are stuck because they cannot transfer their 

credits to another school. 
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Recently, the New York Attorney General settled with Career Education 

Corporation (CEC) for misrepresenting job placement rates to prospective students. The 

NYAG’s settlement enjoined CEC from making any verbal representations to prospective 

students concerning the placement rates and, instead, if a student asks about job 

placement, the admissions rep is to provide a written disclosure to the student. See, 

http://www.ag.ny.gov/press-release/ag-schneiderman-announces-groundbreaking1025-million-dollar-settlement-profit. 

Without offending the First Amendment, the Department can legally require

affirmative verbal disclosures consistent with affirmative written disclosures, neither of 

which misleading, in order to protect prospective students from deceptive enrollment 

tactics. See, Milavetz, Gallop & Milavetz, P.A. v. United States, 559 U.S. 229, 250 (U.S. 

2010) (holding that required advertisement disclosures imposed on debt relief agencies 

constitutional because of government’s interest in protecting consumers from 

deception). 

Accordingly, the Department should require institutions at the time of the 

admissions interview to provide a separate written document that displays the 

disclosure templates about each GE program that the student is interested in AND to 

orally review the information in the template that relates to the specific program(s). 

The institution’s admissions statements – verbal, visual, or written – cannot contradict 

the information in the disclosure template. Doing so would be considered a substantial 

misrepresentation under the regulations, 34 CFR § 668.71(b)6

: 

An eligible institution is deemed to have engaged in substantial 

misrepresentation when the institution itself, one of its representatives, or any 

ineligible institution, organization, or person with whom the eligible institution 

has an agreement to provide educational programs, marketing, advertising, 

recruiting or admissions services, makes a substantial misrepresentation about 

the nature of its educational program, its financial charges, or the employability 

of its graduates.

34 CFR § 668.61(c) further states:

A misleading statement includes any statement that has the likelihood or 

tendency to deceive. A statement is any communication made in writing, 

visually, orally, or through other means.

 6 The Department published revised, finalized regulations in the Federal Register that amend or remove 

regulatory provisions in order to make the Department’s regulations consistent with the D.C. Circuit 

Court’s opinion in Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities v. Duncan, 681 F.3d 427 (D.C. Cir. 

2012). See, Supplemental Information, 78 Fed. Reg. at 57, 798 (Sept. 20, 2013). Some of the 

Misrepresentation Regulations, including 34 CFR §668.71, were affected by this decision. The portions 

cited herein are consistent with the Department’s revised regulations. 
12

Similar to the Department’s misrepresentation regulations, the disclosure 

regulations serve a legitimate state interest to ensure that schools receiving federal 

funds do not deceive prospective students into accepting loans that they cannot repay. 

See, Ass'n of Private Sector Colleges & Univs. v. Duncan, 681 F.3d 427, 457 (D.C. Cir. 

2012). 

Please see the draft proposed language for portions of §668.410:

 

(c) Disclosure information on web pages. On any Web 

page containing general, academic, or admissions 

information about a GE program, the institution must 

provide prominently, clearly and conspicuously the 

disclosure template for the specific program. This means:

(i) The disclosure template must be of such size, 

contrast (shade) and location that it is readily noticeable 

and readable, meaning its location does not require 

scrolling in order to notice it; and

(ii) The disclosure template must be presented in 

close proximity to any other statement that it modifies, 

explains or clarifies, meaning the template must appear 

immediately beneath the name of the program and primary to 

any other description of the program;

(d) Promotional materials. (1) All promotional 

materials about the GE program that an institution makes 

available to prospective students must include the 

information on the disclosure template presented 
13

prominently, clearly and conspicuously and must comply with 

the requirements set forth in (c)(i)-(ii). 

(2) Where space or airtime would preclude the 

information on the disclosure template from being disclosed 

as described in (c)(i)-(ii),an institution may directly 

link (one click) to a separate web page that contains only 

the specific GE program disclosure template. If a GE 

program is offered at multiple locations, an institution 

may directly link (one click) to a page that lists only the 

GE program and its locations, each hyperlinked directly to 

a separate web page that contains only the specific GE 

program disclosure template. 

(3) Placement and appearance of the link must comply 

with (c)(i)-(ii). The institution must identify the link 

as follows: “Jobs, Earnings, Affordability and Student Loan 

Warnings about [name of program].”

(4) If the promotional material specifies more than 

one GE program, the institution may directly link (less 

than one click) to a web page containing only a list of its 

GE programs, each program name completely spelled-out and 

hyperlinked directly (one click) to a web page that 

contains only the specific GE program disclosure template. 

(5) The institution must disclose the information on 
14

the disclosure template in audio if the promotional 

materials are in audio, i.e. Television and radio ads. 

(6) Promotional materials include, but are not 

limited to, an institution’s catalogs, invitations, flyers, 

billboards, and advertising on radio, television, the 

Internet, or social media account.

(7) The institution must ensure that all promotional 

materials, including printed materials, about a GE program 

are accurate and current at the time they are published, 

approved by a State agency, or broadcast.

(e) Direct distribution to students. An institution 

must provide to each prospective student at the time the 

institution first provides the student information about 

any GE program, at the time the student enrolls in any GE 

program, and at any time a student signs financial aid 

forms in order to enroll or remain enrolled in any GE 

program:

(i) A separate document that contains only the 

disclosure template for the specific, relevant GE 

program; and concurrently 

(ii) A verbal explanation of the contents of the 

disclosure template.

(j) The institution shall not contradict in any manner

the information in the disclosure template.
15

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