Finding 2025-002 - U.S. Department of Education (USDE, Title IV Student Financial Aid Programs (significant deficiency): Information on the federal program: Federal Direct Student Loans, FAL No. 84.268, June 30, 2025; Federal Pell Grant Program, FAL No. 84. 063, June 30, 2025; Federal Supplemental E...
Finding 2025-002 - U.S. Department of Education (USDE, Title IV Student Financial Aid Programs (significant deficiency): Information on the federal program: Federal Direct Student Loans, FAL No. 84.268, June 30, 2025; Federal Pell Grant Program, FAL No. 84. 063, June 30, 2025; Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, FAL No. 84.007, June 30, 2025; Federal Work-Study Program, FAL No. 84.033, June 30, 2025. Condition - Based on documentation provided for the 2024–2025 award year, the College disbursed Title IV funds to a student whose ISIR contained Comment Code 325, indicating that the student’s unaccompanied homeless youth status required resolution prior to awarding and disbursing aid. The College did not provide documentation from an authorized entity, nor evidence of a documented Financial Aid Administrator case-by-case determination, to support the student’s independent status. As a result, the student’s dependency status remained unresolved at the time Title IV funds were disbursed. Views of Responsible Officials – The College accepts the recommendation Although a recommendation was noted, the Financial Aid Management System (FAMS) was not programmed as expected for the 2024– 2025 FAFSA application year. The issue was anticipated to be addressed by the third-party vendor through system updates; however, because of the programming oversight, no system flag was generated to request self-supporting documentation or validation of a student’s homelessness or risk of homelessness. In addition, the Department of Education’s FAFSA application did not generate a comment code requiring further action on the student’s record. The Institution has since worked with its third-party vendor to correct the programming oversight to ensure that required documentation is requested for students who indicate homelessness or risk of homelessness. Additionally, at the direction of the FAMS vendor, the Financial Aid Office implemented an internal edit to ensure a system flag alerts staff when documentation is required to resolve such cases. With these corrections, the conditions that caused the error have been addressed. Responsible Officials -The Financial Aid Office under the direction of the Vice President of Student Affairs plans to have the finding resolved by its next fiscal year end audit (between July – October 2026).To ensure ongoing compliance, the Financial Aid Office will monitor student records for appropriate flags and required documentation. The College is aware of the need to review and mitigate compliance risks in this area and will use the described corrective action plan to reduce those risks and eliminate the potential for future audit findings.