Dear Readers -
Please don’t leave comments here – this is HEAG’s old blog which is no longer active. However, we will continue to host this blog as an archive of past articles.
Please go to the web site www.heag.us/blog and see the new blog page with all the latest articles. Many thanks.
As Financial Aid Administrators, we are faced each and every day with opportunities to help our students succeed. In these uncertain economic times, students and their families rely on us even more to guide them through their college career. The information we provide and the way in which we provide it can make the difference in whether or not a student earns their college degree.
Advising and counseling students and their families can be a burdensome responsibility for any seasoned financial aid administrator especially when complied with our daily job tasks. How can you ensure you’re assisting your students to the best of your ability? By taking advantage of training opportunities and sharpening our skills, we can guarantee that we are providing the most accurate information and in the most helpful way possible.
The National Training for Counselors and Mentors (NT4CM) is currently offering training to help give you the skills needed to advise students and their families. NT4CM’s professional trainers provide comprehensive and current information on federal and state student aid programs, scholarship searches, and financial aid fraud.
Training from NT4CM provides you with the following additional benefits:
Online WebEx Training Schedule
Register online or e-mail training@asa.org for more information.
| Introduction and Overview of Financial Aid Programs February 3, 2010 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. |
Searching for Scholarships March 2, 2010 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. |
| Applying for Federal Financial Aid February 10, 2010 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. |
Massachusetts State and Institutional Aid and Conclusion March 10, 2010 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. |
| Student Dependency Status February 17, 2010 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. |
Washington, D.C. State and Institutional Aid and Conclusion March 10, 2010 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. |
| And the Number Is… February 24, 2010 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. |
PLEASE NOTE: You must attend all sessions to earn CEU credits. |
As we all know, the only constant in financial aid, is that the rules are constantly changing. With federal aid programs representing the largest source of financial aid at most schools, the government has made strengthening these programs their main priority. It is vital that these programs remain available to the students that need them.
So, in an effort to guarantee sustainability of these programs, on October 28, 2010, President Obama signed into law new rules ensuring program integrity among institutions of higher education. These new rules included the following:
To date, many resources have been made available to aid administrators to ensure compliance with these new regulations. NASFAA is currently offering a webinar training series on these new regulations. The second part of their series, Program Integrity Part II, is scheduled for January 27, 2011. This session will focus on Ability to Benefit, HS Diploma, Verification, Satisfactory Academic Progress, Arrangements between Institutions, Incentive Compensation, and Misrepresentation. For more information and to register, go to https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/837545928.
For those schools new to Direct Loans, reconciliation is a federal requirement and is required of all DL participants. On a monthly basis, schools must ensure that not only do their internal records match (between the FAO and the Business Office), but that their records match with the Department of Education’s.
So, how can you go about this process? First, let’s look at the various resources available to you. In order to balance your school’s records, you will need to run various financial aid and business office loan detail reports. In order to balance with ED, you can refer to your Student Account Summary (SAS), which is generated by COD on the 1st of weekend of each month. You can also go to COD’s website for other DL Reports or you can contact COD and talk to a Reconciliation Specialist. Also available to you through the FSA Download Site, is the Direct Loan Tools Software.
As you proceed with reconciling, you will need to document all of your efforts. You will need to research, document and resolve any discrepancies between the FAO, Business Office & COD systems. Some common discrepancies may include timing issues, drawing down or disbursing in the wrong academic year, unsent disbursement batches, returning excess cash that should have been a payment or issuing a payment that should have been excess cash.
Once all systems match, the loan detail reports balance and any discrepancies have been resolved, your reconciliation is complete!
With many loans hitting accounts in September, it’s important that you have a solid understanding of reconciliation. In order to help schools (specifically those using Banner), The Higher Education Assistance Group, Inc. (HEAG) is pleased to be offering a FREE webinar on Direct Loan Reconciliation on October 29, 2010 at 11 am (EST). This training webinar is intended for financial aid, students accounts or finance department personnel and will focus on Banner and Direct Loan tools. All participants will receive detailed procedural instructions that will help guide you through the process. Again, this is for Banner schools.
Registration deadline is Wednesday, October 27, 2010. Please contact Raymond Nault via email at rnault@heag.cnc.net or by phone 401-636-2917 with any questions.
HEAG is a financial aid and higher education consulting group located in Wellesley, MA. More information about us can be found on our website atwww.heag.us. This webinar is part of a series of free training opportunities provided to colleges and universities. www.heag.us
By Jeff Baker, Director Policy Liaison and Implementation, Federal Student Aid
The following letter from U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan was e-mailed to college presidents October 26, 2009
THE SECRETARY OF EDUCATION WASHINGTON, DC 20202
As this academic year moves forward, it is hard to believe we already need to consider the 2010-2011 year to come. In doing so, I am writing to seek your assistance and offer mine in taking the necessary steps to ensure uninterrupted access to federal student loans by ensuring your institution is Direct Loan-ready for the 2010-2011 academic year.
Eighteen months ago, uncertainty in the financial markets seriously threatened the availability of Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program loans for the upcoming 2008-09 academic year. Congress acted quickly to provide the Department of Education with unprecedented temporary authority to directly finance loans made through FFEL Program lenders. The goal was to ensure that every student or parent with a need for a federal loan would be able to get one, whether or not the student’s educational institution had taken the steps to provide loans through the Direct Loan Program (where loan access was not affected). This stopgap measure, the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act (ECASLA), was helpful in assisting FFEL Program lenders in making $61.3 billion in new loans to students and their parents this past year. And the bulk of those funds—some $46.3 billion—was provided by the Department of Education.
Did you know that the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) changed the requirements for FAFSA preparers? Effective August 14, 2008, only persons who are paid a fee to help the student complete the FAFSA are considered preparers. Those who advise students without charging a fee, such as high school counselors and financial aid administrators, are not preparers.
Preparers must include their name, their company’s name (if applicable), their address or the company address, and either their SSN or the company Employer Identification Number (EIN, as assigned by the IRS). With the paper FAFSA, the preparer must also sign and date the form. The wording for the related questions on the 2009-10 FAFSA has been updated.
Guidance on Federal Veterans’ Education Benefits for Purposes of the Title IV Student Assistance Programs
Author: Jana Hernandes, Service Director, Operations, Federal Student Aid (September 10, 2009)
We are pleased to announce the availability of “A Guide to Creating a Policies and Procedures Manual.” We have developed this guide to assist schools in creating and revising written documentation of how they comply with the various federal regulations pertaining to the administration of the Title IV programs. The guide features activities designed to help a school meet the minimum general requirements with regard to documented policies and procedures. The document also highlights additional areas for which written policies and procedures are suggested in the Federal Student Aid Handbook.
Author: David Bergeron, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, Planning, and Innovation, Office of Postsecondary Education (August 13, 2009)
On July 1, 2009, President Obama signed H.R. 1777 into law as Public Law 111-39, making technical corrections to the Higher Education Act (HEA). Among other things, H.R. 1777 updated the list of programs that meet the definition of “veterans’ education benefits” in section 480(c) of the HEA by including new programs and revising the statutory citations. Those programs are included in the attachment to this announcement. Note that section 480(c) includes, along with a listing of education benefit programs administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), certain ROTC programs that are administered by the Department of Defense (DOD).
In an electronic announcement posted on IFAP on July 2, 2009 we informed you that H.R. 1777 changed the effective date for the exclusion of Federal veterans’ education benefits, as defined in section 480(c) of the HEA, as estimated financial assistance (EFA) to July 1, 2009 (beginning with the 2009-2010 award year).
July 12, 2009
In a January 30, 2009 Electronic Announcement on the Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) Web site, we provided customer service contact information for Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program loans that the Department of Education (the Department) purchases from FFEL loan holders. Through methods commonly referred to as “PUT” by FFEL loan holders and the Department, the Department becomes the owner and servicer of the purchased loans. Upon purchase of a loan, both the prior FFEL loan holder and the Department correspond with an affected borrower.
Toll-Free Hours of Phone No. Operation
June 17, 2009
The Department awarded Title IV Student Loan Management/Servicing contracts to AES/PHEAA of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Great Lakes Education Loan Services, Inc. of Madison, Wisconsin; Nelnet, Inc. of Lincoln, Nebraska; and Sallie Mae Corporation of Reston, Virginia. The award of these contracts provides the Department with the capacity necessary to support anticipated increases in the number of loans owned by the Department and ensures borrowers receive the assistance they need to effectively manage their federal student loan obligations.
Author: James F. Manning, Acting Chief Operating Officer