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Historical Rule for the Texas Administrative Code

TITLE 22EXAMINING BOARDS
PART 23TEXAS REAL ESTATE COMMISSION
CHAPTER 535GENERAL PROVISIONS
SUBCHAPTER FPRE-LICENSE EDUCATION AND EXAMINATION
RULE §535.63Accreditation of Core Education Schools

(a) Application for accreditation. A person desiring to offer educational programs or courses of study under approval of the commission pursuant to §1101.301 of the Act shall file an application on the appropriate form approved by the commission and submit the required fee.

  (1) Standards for approval of application for accreditation. To be accredited by the commission to offer core courses in real estate, the applicant must satisfy the commission as to the applicant's ability to administer courses with competency, honesty trustworthiness and integrity. If the applicant proposes to employ another person such as an independent contractor to conduct or administer the courses, the other person must meet this standard as if the other person were the applicant. The applicant must also demonstrate that the applicant has sufficient financial resources to conduct its proposed operations on a continuing basis without risk of loss to students attending the school and that the proposed facilities will be adequate and safe for conducting classes. An applicant that is currently accredited will be deemed to meet financial requirements imposed by this subsection once the applicant has provided the statutory bond or other security acceptable to the commission under §1101.301 of the Act if there are no unsatisfied final money judgments against the applicant; otherwise, the application will be subject to the financial review provisions of this section.

  (2) Financial review. The commission shall review the financial condition of each applicant for accreditation to determine whether the applicant has sufficient financial resources to conduct its proposed operations on a continuing basis. In making this determination, the commission shall be conservative in the financial assumptions it makes concerning the school's proposed operations and its future cash flows. The applicant shall provide the following information:

    (A) business financial statements prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, which shall include a current statement of financial condition and a current statement of net worth;

    (B) on an initial application, a proposed budget for the first year of operation; and

    (C) on an initial application, a market survey indicating the anticipated enrollment for the first year of operation.

  (3) Approval of application for accreditation. If it determines that the applicant meets the standards for accreditation and has furnished the bond or other acceptable security required by §1101.302 of the Act, the commission shall approve the application and provide a written notice of the accreditation to the applicant. Unless surrendered or revoked for cause, the accreditation will be valid for a period of four years.

  (4) Disapproval of application for accreditation. If it determines that an applicant does not meet the standards for accreditation, the commission shall disapprove the application in writing. An applicant may request a hearing before the commission on the disapproval by filing a written request for hearing within 10 days following the applicant's receipt of the notice of disapproval. Following the hearing, the commission shall issue an order which, in the opinion of the commission, is appropriate in the matter concerned. Venue for any hearing conducted under this section shall be in Travis County. The disapproval and hearing are subject to the Administrative Procedure Act, Texas Government Code, Chapter 2001, and to Chapter 533 of this title (relating to Practice and Procedure).

(b) Renewal of accreditation. No more than six months prior to the expiration of its current accreditation, a school may apply for accreditation for another four year period. Approval or disapproval of an application shall be subject to the standards for initial applications for accreditation, as well as the requirement of §1101.301 of the Act.

  (1) For purposes of calculating the exam passage rate of a commission-accredited school, each type of licensing examination that a student takes for the first time will have a school affiliation, unless the last core course taken for the purpose of meeting the education requirements for the type of license was taken at a school that is not accredited by the commission or the course was taken more than two years before the date the student submitted the course to the commission.

  (2) The school a student is affiliated with for purposes of this subsection is the school where the student took his or her last core course. If the student's last core course was taken more than two years before that date, the commission will not count the student in calculating the school's exam pass rate.

  (3) A school's passage rate will be calculated and published quarterly by dividing the number of students affiliated with that school, as defined in paragraph (2) of this subsection, who passed the examination on their first attempt in the four-year period ending on the last day of the previous quarter by the total number of the school's graduates who took the exam for the first time in the same period. If a school offers courses toward multiple license types, the exam results for that school will be calculated and posted by license type and aggregated into the school's overall passage rate for that period. The passage rate that will be used to determine whether the accreditation standard has been met is the most current aggregate rate published by the commission as of the date the commission receives the timely application for reaccreditation or, if the accreditation expired before being renewed, the most recent rate published by the commission as of the expiration date of the school's accreditation.

  (4) In determining whether a school qualifies for reaccreditation based on its examination passage rate, the commission may consider a variety of factors, including the separate passage rates for sales, broker, and inspector applicants and trends within the school's passage rate over the four-year accreditation period.

(c) Payment of annual fee. A school shall pay the fee prescribed by §1101.152(a)(11) of the Act and by §535.101 of this title (relating to Fees) no later than the anniversary of the date of the school's accreditation. At least 30 days prior to the day the fee is due, the commission shall send a written notice to the school to pay the fee, but the school's obligation to pay the fee is not affected by any failure to receive the notice.


Source Note: The provisions of this §535.63 adopted to be effective January 1, 2011, 35 TexReg 11679

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