Finding Text
Reporting
Student Financial Assistance Cluster of Programs
84.268 Federal Direct Loan Program
U.S. Department of Education
Criteria: 34 CFR 685.301(a)(1) A school participating in the Direct Loan Program must ensure that any information it provides to the Secretary in connection with loan origination is complete and accurate.
34 CFR 685.301(a)(2) A school must provide to the Secretary borrower information that includes but is not limited to -
(i) The borrower’s eligibility for a loan, as determined in accordance with § 685.200 and § 685.203;
(ii) The student’s loan amount; and
(iii) The anticipated and actual disbursement date or dates and disbursement amounts of the loan proceeds, as determined in accordance with § 685.303(d).
Condition: A sample of thirty-seven students was selected for student file and account testing. One of the student’s Fall 2023 PLUS loan disbursement date was incorrectly reported on the Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) website.
Context: This was discovered during the audit testing of student files and accounts.
Effect: The disbursement date was incorrect in COD for this student, but later corrected. During the uncorrected period, the dates of disbursement in COD did not match NSLDS.
Cause: This appeared to be an isolated incident where the disbursement was processed, cancelled, and then reprocessed at a later date for the student requesting an additional PLUS loan.
Recommendation: We recommend that the College update their internal documentation review of Title IV reporting to prevent inaccurate reporting dates. Specifically, we recommend including a process where management reviews information for any loans cancelled and re-entered to ensure all information is reported accurately.
Section 3 - Federal Award Findings and Questioned Costs - Continued
Views of responsible officials: This issue occurred while the Director of Financial Aid was out of the office on Leave. This issue was caused by an issue in Populi’s system and a replacement Financial Aid Officer did not know who was supposed to be included in the disbursement batch.
The process will be updated so that a list of all students who are meant to be in a batch will be listed on a report as their requests come in, then the report will be referenced when creating a disbursement batch to make sure no students are missing.