| (1) A school shall present core real estate courses prescribed by the Act, §1101.003 and real estate related courses accepted by the commission in no less than 30 classroom hours of instruction. The school shall advertise and schedule a course for the full clock hours of time for which credit is awarded. (2) A school may give one hour of credit for a minimum of 50 clock minutes of actual classroom session time. A school shall provide a break of at least 20 minutes to be given at least every two hours. While a school is expected to ensure that each student is present in the classroom for the hours of time for which credit is awarded, this section is not intended to penalize students who must leave the classroom for brief periods of time for personal reasons such as taking medication or responding to the call of nature. (i) Course credit and records. (1) Within ten days following the completion of other than an alternative delivery method course or correspondence course, a school shall provide the commission with a class roster in a format approved by the commission. For an alternative delivery method course or correspondence course, a school shall provide a roster of those students completing the course within 10 days after the end of the month in which the student completed the course. The listing of students must be numbered and in alphabetical order, with each student's last name shown first, and must show after each student's name the final grade of either passed, failed, incomplete, or dropped, in language or symbols that can be correlated with these categories. The school shall explain any other grade concisely but clearly. The school shall list all instructors used in the course on the roster. (A) "Passed" must be limited to those students who attended all of the scheduled classes or completed acceptable makeup and who successfully passed the final course examination based on passing standards approved by the commission. (B) "Failed" must be limited to those students who had acceptable classroom attendance but failed the final course examination. If, however, the school permits the student to retake the examination in accordance with subsection (e) of this section, the first failure must be reported as an incomplete grade. (C) "Incomplete" must be limited to those students who met the attendance requirements, but did not take the final course examination; those who attended at least two/thirds of the scheduled course hours but did not complete acceptable makeup; or those who fail the final course examination but will be permitted to take a second examination. If a student is reported incomplete and later completes acceptable makeup and the final examination, the school shall file a supplemental report with the commission giving the student's name and final grade report and using the same format and course data as the original class report. The school shall file a separate supplemental report for each individual class but may include more than one student on the report if all students were in the same original class. (D) "Dropped" must be limited to those students who missed more than one/third of the scheduled class in which they were originally enrolled; those who voluntarily terminated their enrollment; or those whose enrollment was terminated for cause by a school director. (2) A school may permit a student who attends at least two-thirds of a scheduled course to complete makeup work to satisfy attendance requirements. Acceptable makeup procedures are the attendance in the corresponding class sessions in a subsequent offering of the same course or the supervised presentation by audio or video recording of the class sessions actually missed. A school shall require all class makeup sessions to be completed within 90 days of the completion of the original course, or the student must be considered dropped with no credit for the course. A member of the school's staff must approve the makeup procedure to be followed. A student attending less than two-thirds of the originally scheduled course must automatically be dropped from the course without credit and reported as dropped. Dropped status may not be changed by makeup sessions, and any hours accumulated may not be transferred to any other course. (3) A school shall issue to the students successfully completing a course of instruction an official certificate which reflects the school's name, branch, course title, course numbers, and the number of classroom hours (or other recognized educational unit) involved in the course. All core course certificates must show the statutory core course title or other identification as prescribed by the commission. Certificates also must show the date of issuance and be signed by an official of the school, or if the certificate is computer printed, the school logo may be substituted for the signature. Letters or other official communications also may be provided to students for submission to the commission as evidence of satisfactory completion of the course. Such letters must fully reflect the school name, the course title and number, educational units, and be dated and signed by an official of the school, or if the letter is computer printed, the school logo may be substituted for the signature. A school shall maintain adequate security for completion certificates and letters. Compliance with this requirement will be determined by the commission during all school audits. A school may withhold a student's certificate of completion of a course until the student has fulfilled the student's financial obligation to the school. (4) A school shall maintain records of each student enrolled in any course for a minimum of five years. The full class file and student enrollment agreements must be retained for at least 12 months following completion of the class. (5) A school shall maintain financial records sufficient to reflect at any time the financial condition of the school. A school's financial statement and balance sheets must be available for audit by commission personnel, and the commission may require presentation of financial statements or other financial records. (j) Advertising. The following practices are prohibited: (1) using any advertising which does not contain the school's name; (2) representing that the school's program is the only vehicle by which a person may satisfy educational requirement for licensing; (3) conveying a false impression of the school's size, importance, location, equipment or facilities; (4) making unsubstantiated claims that the school's programs are superior to any other course of instruction; (5) promoting the school directly or indirectly as a job placement agency, unless the school is participating in a program recognized by federal, state, or local government and is providing job placement services to the extent the services are required by the program; or (6) making any statement which is misleading, likely to deceive the public, or which in any manner tends to create a misleading impression. |
| Source Note: The provisions of this 535.65 adopted to be effective January 31, 2000, 24 TexReg 9282; amended to be effective June 27, 2002, 27 TexReg 5520; amended to be effective January 1, 2004, 28 TexReg 9543; amended to be effective May 11, 2004, 29 TexReg 4486 |
