# Bringing Back Stopped-Out Students: Finding, Reaching and Re-Enrolling the Some College, No Credential Population > Higher Education · ibl.ai > Source: https://ibl.ai/courses/higher-education/re-enrolling-stopped-out-students > Last updated: 2026-11-14 *Size and segment your stopped-out population, clear the barriers, reach former students lawfully and re-admit them with a degree map* **A higher education course from ibl.ai (self-paced, 8 to 10 hours, free).** An intermediate, self-paced playbook for enrollment, student success, registrar and bursar leaders: find stopped-out students in your own records, segment them, remove holds and transcript barriers within federal and state rules, run outreach that respects consent and opt-outs, re-admit with a degree map and measure the results. - **Price:** Free - **Format:** Self-paced, online - **Time:** 8 to 10 hours - **Pace:** 2.5 hours per week - **Level:** Intermediate - **Language:** English - **Subject:** Enrollment Management [Enroll](https://lms.ibl.ai/platform/highereducation/courses/course-v1:highereducation+re-enrolling-stopped-out-students+self-paced) ## Course description Bringing Back Stopped-Out Students teaches the operating side of re-enrolling the Some College, No Credential population. You will size your stopped-out population with definitions that match the National Student Clearinghouse's reports, segment it into near-completers, credit-rich former students, balance-holders and transfer-outs, and audit the barriers your institution controls: transcript holds under 34 CFR 668.14(b)(33) and (b)(34) and state law, other holds, catalog expiry, lapsed admission and the financial aid checks returners need. You will design outreach that respects FERPA, the TCPA and the FCC's consent and opt-out rules and the CAN-SPAM Act, learn what randomized trials of re-enrollment outreach show, re-admit returners with a degree map, and measure re-enrollment, perseverance and completion against a comparison group. Three labs use invented data, and the capstone is a re-enrollment campaign plan for your own institution. Last verified 2026-11-03. ### About this course Tens of millions of Americans started college and left without a credential. The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center counted 37.6 million working-age adults with some college and no credential as of July 2023, and a little more than 1 million of them re-enrolled during 2023-24 ([Some College, No Credential, June 2025](https://nscresearchcenter.org/some-college-no-credential/)). This course is an operating playbook for bringing the right former students back to your institution: finding them in your own records, removing the barriers you control, reaching them within the law, re-admitting them with a clear plan, and measuring what worked. It is taught from primary sources, including the Clearinghouse reports, the Department of Education's transcript rule at 34 CFR 668.14, state transcript statutes, FERPA, the FCC's TCPA rules and the CAN-SPAM Act, and from published research by Ithaka S+R, the Institute for Higher Education Policy, MDRC and the Community College Research Center. ### What you will be able to do - Size your institution's stopped-out population from its own records, using definitions that match the National Student Clearinghouse's Some College, No Credential reports, and quote national figures with their edition and year. - Segment the population into near-completers, credit-rich former students, balance-holders and transfer-outs, with flags for balances, holds, academic standing, recency and contact consent. - Identify and remove the barriers your institution controls, applying the federal transcript rule in 34 CFR 668.14(b)(33) and (b)(34), your state's transcript law, holds, catalog and readmission policy, and the financial aid checks returners need. - Design outreach that offers something concrete in every touch and respects FERPA, the TCPA and the FCC's consent and opt-out rules, and the CAN-SPAM Act's requirements for commercial email. - Re-admit returning students through a short path with a named contact, an award check and a term-by-term degree map. - Measure re-enrollment, perseverance and completion with Clearinghouse-style metrics, a randomly held-out comparison group and an equity check. ### Who this course is for **Roles:** enrollment management, student success, registrar, bursar and adult-learner program leaders, and the institutional research and financial aid colleagues who work with them. **Institutions:** community colleges, regional public universities and private nonprofit colleges, especially those that participate in the federal student aid programs. **Before you start:** familiarity with your institution's student information system, holds and readmission process helps. No legal or technical background is needed. Labs use invented data; never bring real student records into the course. ### Format **Time:** 8 to 10 hours, self-paced. **Level:** intermediate. **Hands-on:** three labs (segment an illustrative 500-record extract, draft a five-touch outreach sequence, map one returning student's remaining requirements), five templates and four worked examples. **Structure:** a Start here section, four content sections of readings, worked examples, templates and labs, each ending in an AI assessment, and a capstone in which you write a re-enrollment campaign plan for your own institution, followed by a reading list. **Grading:** the four section AI assessments count for 60 percent of the grade and the capstone assessment for 40 percent. The pass mark is 70 percent. ### Currency **Last verified 2026-11-03** against the Clearinghouse's June 2025 Some College, No Credential report, the current eCFR text of 34 CFR 668.14, 34 CFR Part 99 and 47 CFR 64.1200, the state statutes cited in the course, and the research reports linked from each page. The rules and the data are still changing. The Clearinghouse lists its next Some College, No Credential report for November 2026. The FCC's revised opt-out rule for calls and texts takes effect on November 25, 2026, and further changes have been proposed. State transcript laws are amended most years. Check the current sources before you rely on any page, and take specific cases to your registrar, financial aid office or counsel. This course is training, not legal advice. ## Outline ### Section 0 · Start here - 0.1 Welcome and orientation ### Section 1 · Size and segment your stopped-out population - 1.1 Who the Some College, No Credential population is - 1.2 Build and segment your own list - 1.3 Section 1 assessment ### Section 2 · Find and remove the barriers to return - 2.1 Transcript holds and balances - 2.2 Holds, catalogs, aid eligibility and debt relief - 2.3 Section 2 assessment ### Section 3 · Reach stopped-out students lawfully and well - 3.1 The rules for contacting former students - 3.2 Design the outreach - 3.3 Section 3 assessment ### Section 4 · Re-admit with a degree map and measure the results - 4.1 Re-admit and map the degree - 4.2 Measure re-enrollment and completion - 4.3 Section 4 assessment ### Section 5 · Capstone and wrap-up - 5.1 Capstone: a re-enrollment campaign plan for your institution - 5.2 Capstone assessment - 5.3 Reading list and next steps ## Instructors - ibl.ai Higher Education, Course team (ibl.ai) ## More higher education courses - [FERPA Basics for Faculty and Staff](https://ibl.ai/courses/higher-education/ferpa-basics) - [AI Academic Advising at Scale: Caseload Triage, Proactive Outreach and Human Handoffs](https://ibl.ai/courses/higher-education/ai-academic-advising-caseload-management) - [Auditing Early-Alert and Predictive Analytics in Higher Education: Bias Testing, FERPA Boundaries and Human Review Before Anyone Gets Flagged](https://ibl.ai/courses/higher-education/early-alert-predictive-analytics-audit) - [Degree Audit Automation: Encoding Your Catalog as Rules an Agent Can Run](https://ibl.ai/courses/higher-education/degree-audit-automation)