---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION -- PRIVATE SCHOOLS (Requires accreditation by a Regional Accrediting Agency recognized by the United States Department of Education for distance learning institutions to transact business or grant degrees in Rhode Island.)"
description: "AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION -- PRIVATE SCHOOLS (Requires accreditation by a Regional Accrediting Agency recognized by the United States Department of Education for distance learning institutions to transact business or grant degrees in Rhode Island.)"
jurisdiction: "us/states/ri"
legislature: "Rhode Island General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "HB 5661"
citation: "Rhode Island HB 5661 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Dept. of Education", "Education"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Fellela", "Kazarian", "McNamara", "Messier", "Morin"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 14
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2017-03-01"
last_action: "2017-06-27"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/7dda8790-4342-4751-929c-56bc1b9b3422"
source_url: "http://status.rilin.state.ri.us/"
source_hash: "f5dabb09c698b156ecd3b8728c95546127d67195ca73f049d4203ac8c3a89dab"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ri"]
---

# Rhode Island HB 5661 (2017) — AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION -- PRIVATE SCHOOLS (Requires accreditation by a Regional Accrediting Agency recognized by the United States Department of Education for distance learning institutions to transact business or grant degrees in Rhode Island.)

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **5661** (committee substitute) — [source](http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText/BillText17/HouseText17/H5661.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE — **72–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Fellela — primary (person)
- Kazarian — primary (person)
- McNamara — primary (person)
- Messier — primary (person)
- Morin — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-03-01** 03/01/2017 Introduced, referred to House H.E.W. `referral-committee, introduction`
- **2017-03-17** 03/17/2017 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (03/22/2017)
- **2017-03-22** 03/22/2017 Committee recommended measure be held for further study
- **2017-04-03** 04/03/2017 Scheduled for consideration (04/05/2017)
- **2017-04-05** 04/05/2017 Committee recommends passage `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-05-19** 05/19/2017 Placed on House Calendar (05/23/2017)
- **2017-05-23** 05/23/2017 House read and passed `passage`
- **2017-05-30** 05/30/2017 Referred to Senate Education `referral-committee`
- **2017-06-02** 06/02/2017 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (06/07/2017)
- **2017-06-07** 06/07/2017 Committee recommends passage in concurrence `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-06-20** 06/20/2017 Placed on the Senate Consent Calendar (06/21/2017)
- **2017-06-21** 06/21/2017 Senate passed in concurrence `passage`
- **2017-06-21** 06/21/2017 Transmitted to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2017-06-27** 06/27/2017 Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/7dda8790-4342-4751-929c-56bc1b9b3422`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Rhode Island legislature records).