HR 1176119th CongressIn Committee

Clock Hour Program Student Protection Act

Introduced: Feb 10, 2025

Standard Summary

Comprehensive overview in 1-2 paragraphs

The Clock Hour Program Student Protection Act would amend the Higher Education Act to clarify when a clock-hour training program can remain eligible for Title IV federal student aid even if its instructional hours exceed a state's minimum requirement. The bill creates a new eligibility pathway for programs that prepare students for gainful employment in a recognized profession within a state, provided the program’s clock hours do not exceed a cap. The cap is the greater of 150 percent of the state-required minimum clock hours or 150 percent of the federal agency’s minimum clock hours for that training. The amendment takes effect on enactment and applies starting with the 2024-2025 award year and onward.

Key Points

1Adds a new eligibility category under Section 481(b): a program that is otherwise eligible and is longer than the state minimum for its profession can still qualify if its hours are within a specified cap.
2The cap is the greater of 150 percent of the state-required minimum hours or 150 percent of the minimum hours required by a federal agency for the same training.
3The provision only applies to programs that prepare students for gainful employment in a recognized profession in a state and must exceed the state’s minimum hours to trigger this pathway.
4The amendment explicitly ties eligibility to clock-hour length, balancing protection for longer but potentially higher-quality programs with a limit to prevent overly long trainings from qualifying.
5Effective date: the act takes effect upon enactment and applies to the 2024-2025 award year and subsequent years.

Impact Areas

Primary group/area affected: Institutions offering clock-hour, Title IV-eligible training programs and the students enrolled in those programs. This change could allow certain longer but still appropriately scoped programs to retain federal aid eligibility.Secondary group/area affected: State licensing boards and professional credentialing bodies that set minimum clock-hour requirements for recognized professions; federal agencies that define minimum hours for specific trainings; and the U.S. Department of Education through Title IV administration.Additional impacts: Institutions may reassess program design to fit within the 1.5x cap; data reporting and compliance processes related to clock-hour determinations may be updated; the policy could influence which programs pursue Title IV eligibility and how they justify clock-hour requirements to regulators.

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