Since the 2007-08 academic year, a first-time applicant for New York's Tuition Assistance Program who lacks a U.S. high school diploma or its recognized equivalent has needed another way in. The path written into law is a federally approved Ability-to-Benefit test identified by the Regents. On the ACCUPLACER, one of two approved exams, the Education Department lists passing scores of 233 on the Reading Test, 235 on the Writing Test and 230 on the math Test.

The Regents are now rewriting the rule behind that test. A revised amendment to Section 145-2.15 of the Commissioner's regulations went to the Board's Higher Education Committee this month and names three groups as meeting the secondary education requirement for state aid. They are graduates of accredited U.S. online high schools, homeschooled students whose superintendent certifies a four-year high school equivalent, and graduates of nonpublic high schools found substantially equivalent under Part 130.

A Notice of Revised Rule Making is scheduled to appear in the State Register on Sept. 30, opening a 45-day comment period. The Department expects to bring the amendment back for permanent adoption at the December 2026 Regents meeting, and if the Board adopts it then, the rule takes effect Dec. 31, 2026.

The online diploma already has a law behind it

Chapter 606 of the Laws of 2025, sponsored by Assemblywoman Alicia Hyndman and Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky, amended Education Law 661 to recognize diplomas from certain online high school programs. Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the bill, A.7390 in the Assembly and S.6705 in the Senate, on Dec. 5, 2025. The Higher Education Services Corporation, which administers TAP, now tells colleges that graduates of certain online high schools are eligible for state-administered aid beginning with the 2026-27 year.

Hyndman chairs the Assembly Committee on Higher Education, and her office said the law especially helps nontraditional students and those in workforce development programs such as Job Corps. "Education evolves, and our laws must evolve with it," she said in a statement. "We are sending a clear message: if you put in the work to earn your diploma, New York State will support your path to a college degree, regardless of whether your classroom was physical or digital."

Qualification depends on accreditation. For a program located in the United States, HESC's guidance lists authorization by the state education agency where the school sits or regional accreditation, along with accreditation from the Distance Education Accrediting Commission. The four regional bodies it names are the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, the Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges, Cognia and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

The same law set a separate rule for admission. SUNY and CUNY must admit graduates of online programs that meet the accreditation standard, sit in the United States and have more than 10,000 students a year complete them nationally. The aid language headed into Section 145-2.15 carries no enrollment threshold.

The regulation also swaps out one of the statute's citations. Chapter 606 points to Job Corps guidelines on the ongoing quality monitoring of high school diploma programs. Department staff confirmed with the Governor's office that the accreditation criteria sit in a different document, the Guidelines for the Accreditation of Job Corps High School Programs, and the rule cites that one. HESC's guidance page still names the older title.

When the original version of the amendment was published for comment on June 3, it drew no public comments, according to the Department's memo.

Homeschool graduates were already eligible

For homeschooled students the amendment writes down a practice that already exists. The Department's memo says that completing the substantial equivalent of a four-year high school course through home instruction under Section 100.10 has been permitted under the existing regulation. The completion must be certified by the superintendent of the student's district of residence, and the Department says it wants to make the option transparent for students seeking aid.

HESC's guidance for colleges already describes that superintendent letter as a pathway reserved for homeschooled students who met the home instruction requirements. The revised rule keeps the superintendent's certification as the gate, and that superintendent's office is the same one that receives a family's home instruction plans and quarterly reports.

The Home School Legal Defense Association, which advocates for homeschooling families, says superintendents may refuse to issue the letter. In a 2023 account the group published, Tabatha Ludwig described asking her district about one for her youngest daughter. "They said that in order to grant us that letter we had to follow the public school requirements," she said. One of those requirements was an additional foreign language class, which she said state homeschool law does not require.

"We don't balk at all the paperwork and requirements," Ludwig told the organization. "But it is really challenging to homeschool in New York."

Nonpublic schools 

The substantive change in the September revision is for graduates of nonpublic schools. HESC's current guidance says only public and registered nonpublic schools in New York may award diplomas. Diplomas from non-registered schools do not meet the requirement for state aid, and the superintendent letter is not available to their graduates.

The revised rule adds graduates of high schools deemed to offer substantially equivalent instruction under Part 130, the review process the Regents adopted in September 2022. The Department said the addition is consistent with amendments proposed to Section 3.47 of the Rules of the Board of Regents, which sets the qualifications for degree conferral.

The same sentence of the rule excludes graduates of a school deemed equivalent solely under Section 3204(6)(b)(iii) of the Education Law, a phase-in provision added in 2025. Under it, a nonpublic school is treated as meeting new testing criteria before it has given the tests. That phase-in runs as a school adds one tested grade a year and ends after the 2032-33 school year.

Under the revised text, the Part 130 route opens for a graduate whose school's equivalency rests on something other than phase-in status. A graduate whose school qualifies through phase-in status alone would still need a diploma alternative, such as an Ability-to-Benefit score or a high school equivalency diploma.

What the change is worth, and what to do before December

TAP pays between $1,000 and $5,665 a year to eligible students, with an income ceiling of $125,000 in net taxable income for dependent undergraduates. The ceiling drops to $60,000 for married independent students without dependents and $30,000 for single independent students without dependents. HESC lists June 30, 2027 as the application deadline for the 2026-27 award year, so the Dec. 31 effective date lands before that window closes.

Online graduates can check their program's accreditation against the bodies HESC names. Homeschooling families with a senior this year can ask for the superintendent's certification well before a college's financial aid office needs it. Graduates of nonpublic schools can ask the school which Part 130 pathway its equivalency determination rests on, since the answer decides which side of the phase-in clause they fall on.

State aid eligibility is contested on other fronts this year, including the Justice Department's August lawsuit over resident tuition and state aid for undocumented students. Federal aid runs on its own rules, including the Workforce Pell grants that now cover training programs as short as eight weeks. Adults who never finished high school still have the equivalency route, and districts and BOCES are competing this fall for five years of adult education funding through the Education Department.

Anyone who wants the Regents to hear about the phase-in exclusion, the superintendent's role or the accreditation list has 45 days from the Sept. 30 notice to say so. The Board's next scheduled look at the amendment is its December meeting.