A brand new report by the Nationwide Pupil Clearinghouse Analysis Middle and State Increased Schooling Govt Officers Affiliation reveals that college students enrolled in a school or college that closes are considerably extra more likely to re-enroll inside 4 months if the state the place the school is positioned mandates the closing establishment assist college students transition to a different establishment.

The report, which is the third in a three-part sequence about school closures, reviewed two kinds of insurance policies associated to transitioning to a brand new establishment: teach-out plan insurance policies, which require the school that’s closing to have an settlement with a school that’s keen to tackle the previous establishment’s college students, and pupil data insurance policies, which dictate what pupil info faculties should retain and, generally, how these data must be saved and guarded.

College students in a state that had a kind of insurance policies had been 53.5 p.c extra more likely to re-enroll following their faculties’ closure than these whose states didn’t have both coverage. Having each insurance policies in place led to a 94.5 p.c improve in re-enrollment.

The report additionally famous, nonetheless, that college students in states that provide some form of monetary compensation to college students enrolled in a college that shuts down had been much less more likely to re-enroll. All these compensation embody tuition restoration funds, which repay college students’ tuition upon an institutional closure, or surety bonds, which function very similar to an insurance coverage coverage that distributes cash to college students if their establishment closes or within the case of an analogous loss. In states that require both tuition restoration or surety bonds, college students had been 80.9 p.c much less more likely to re-enroll inside 4 months, they usually had been 72.4 p.c much less more likely to re-enroll in states that require each.

The report, which utilized NSCRC information associated to 467 closures between 2004 and 2020, notes the destructive correlation between compensation and re-enrollment seemingly exists as a result of many insurance policies require college students to decide on between using the teach-out choice or receiving cost.

In one in all its coverage suggestions, the report advises states to “contemplate eradicating the restriction that college students can not entry surety bond or tuition restoration payouts in the event that they settle for the teach-out choice. Moderately than forcing college students into making a tough determination between reimbursement or a teachout, these insurance policies could possibly be redesigned to supply incentives for reenrollment.”

Individually, tuition restoration and surety bonds additionally don’t have any constant constructive impression on whether or not college students whose school closed finally full a credential, however a mixture of each types of compensation is correlated with a 339.5 p.c improve in completion charges over college students in states with neither coverage. Alternatively, pupil data insurance policies and teach-out insurance policies are negatively correlated with credential completion, even in states the place each insurance policies are in place.