The following words or terms, when used in this Chapter, shall have the following meaning, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
"Application for tuition assistance and participation agreement" A signed binding agreement between the Oklahoma Department of Corrections and the participating employee which describes the terms of the tuition assistance provided.
"Career applicable" An educational program is career applicable if it is undertaken for the purpose of preparing the individual, through skill enhancement, for advancement in the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.
"Educational program" A formal degree, certificate, or licensure program for which the employee is required to complete an established set of courses and receive credit for them.
"Eligible academic institution" Any accredited college, university, community college, or technical institution, offering academic or vocational courses that provide credit hours to enrolled students for course completion.
"Eligible courses" Courses that, upon completion, accumulate credit hours toward an education program and are job-related and/or career applicable.
"Eligible employee" Any permanent, classified or unclassified, full-time employee of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections who has received no formal discipline within one year of making application to the program, who has received a "meets"or "exceeds standards" on his/her current performance appraisal, and who has indicated in writing his/her intentions to remain employed with the Oklahoma Department of Corrections for a minimum of 24 months from the date payment for tuition assistance was issued.
"Job related" An education program is job related if the curriculum content is designed to contribute to performance improvement in the current job in terms of efficiency and increased skills.
"Participating employee" Any employee who has satisfied all program criteria and has been approved for participation in the Oklahoma Department of Corrections Employee Tuition Assistance Program.
"Satisfactory program participation" Participating employees will provide an academic transcript documenting satisfactory program participation within 60 days of course completion. Satisfactory program participation shall be documented by proof that the participating employee has earned a passing grade and a cumulative grade point average of 2.5 or above. Any participating employee who fails to submit documentation of satisfactory course participation will be considered ineligible for further tuition assistance until such time as the employee has satisfactorily completed the course or reimbursed the agency for the amount of tuition assistance provided for the course.
"Tuition assistance" Payment of tuition provided to an eligible academic institution by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections for participating employees.
Okla. Admin. Code § 170:30-1-3