Audit 375093

Student Financial Assistance Cluster U.S. Department of Education Federal Direct Student Loans 84.268 Federal Pell Grant Program 84.063 Award Year 2025 Criteria or Specific Requirement - Return of Title IV Funds. According to 34 CFR 668.22(a)(6(ii)(B)(1), the institution shall require post withdrawal disbursements of grant funds may be credited to the student's account, without the student's authorization, for any outstanding charges for tuition and fees on the student's account, up to the amount of those outstanding changes. Any grant funds not disbursed to the student's account must be disbursed to the student no later than 45 days after the date of the institution's determination that the student withdrew. Condition - The College did not reimburse the student's account within the required 45 days from the date of determination of student withdraw. The College completed the disbursement to the student's account 151 days after the student withdrew from classes. Cause - Lack of review and oversight when refund information is completed.Effect - The information included into the refunds worksheet was completely timely. The federal funds were disbursed after the required refund period. Questioned Costs - None.Context - Out of a population of 24 students selected for refund, a sample of four students was selected for testing. Out of these four students selected for testing, there was one instance in which the federal funds were refunded after the proper period of the student refund. The sample was not, and was not intended to be, a statistically valid sample. Identification as a Repeat Finding - NoneRecommendation - The College should implement an automated control to ensure that federal aid be refunded during the proper period. Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions - The College has procedures in place that are supposed to prevent the delay of students refunds. This was an unusual circumstance where the student was withdrawn form the college before they were awarded any federal aid. Therefore, the college put in place procedures to review the eligibility for federal aid of any student who withdraws to determine whether a post withdraws to determine whether post withdrawal disbursement is appropriate.

Student Financial Assistance Cluster U.S. Department of Education Federal Direct Student Loans 84.268 Federal Pell Grant Program 84.063 Award Year 2025 Criteria or Specific Requirement – Reporting: Financial Reporting 34 CFR Section 690.83 the institution is required to report key items to test on origination records for the fiscal year including: award amount, enrollment date, verification status code, transaction number, cost of attendance, and the “Academic Start Date” and “Academic End Date”. Condition - Out of 25 students tested, there were three students with federal awards that had reported an an incorrect Cost of Attendance to COD system. Cause - The Financial Aid department does not have adequate processes and controls around updating the origination records when changes occur. Effect - COD reporting was not properly completed for Direct Loan and Pell Grant recipients. Questioned Costs - None.Context - Out of a population of 327 students receiving Pell or Direct Loans and requiring reporting to COD, a sample of 25 students were selected for testing. Our sample was not and was not intended to be statistically valid. The Cost of Attendance for 3 students that received federal awards did not agree to the Cost of Attendance on the COD system. Identification as a Repeat Finding - None Recommendation - The Financial Aid department should review processes and controls around COD reporting and consider changes to updates information back to the COD system. Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions - Management concurs with the finding. The College experienced some turnover during the year. The new director was unaware that the Cost of Attendance was not being updated when a change in the award was submitted COD due to a change in the student’s schedule. The director is now aware that these changes must be updated manually in COD and has implemented procedures to ensure that the COA is reviewed whenever a revision to the student award is submitted to COD. The college will also confer with the software vendor to determine if any settings in the student information need to be corrected for this update to be automated. The new director of financial aid has been through substantial training in the last six months to better understand how the college’s software communicates with COD, and has implemented procedures to ensure the timely submission of disbursements to COD after the disbursements have been made in the student information system.