Finding Text
Federal Agency: Department of Education
Federal Program Name: Student Financial Assistance Cluster
Assistance Listing Numbers: 84.063 and 84.268
Federal Award Identification Number and Year: P268K231902, P063P231902, grants were awarded within the 2022-23 and 2023-24 award years.
Award Period: September 1, 2023, through August 31, 2024
Type of Finding: Significant Deficiency in Internal Control over Compliance and Other Matters
Criteria or Specific Requirement:
The Code of Federal Regulations, 34 CFR 685.309 requires that enrollment status changes for students be reported to NSLDS within 30 days or within 60 days if the student with the status change will be reported on a scheduled transmission within 60 days of the change in status. Regulations require the status include an accurate effective date. In addition, regulations require that an institution make necessary corrections and return the records within 10 days for any roster files that don’t pass the NSLDS enrollment reporting edits.
Condition and Context:
During our testing of NSLDS Enrollment Reporting, we noted the student status changes that were received by NSLDS was outside of the 60-day timeframe for 7 of the 40 students sampled.
Questioned Costs:
N/A
Cause:
The College policies and procedures did not ensure that student status changes were timely reported to NSLDS.
Effect:
The NSLDS system is not updated with student information which can cause over-awarding should the student transfer to another institution and the student may not properly enter the repayment period.
Repeat Finding:
No.
Recommendation:
The College should review their reporting internal controls and procedures to ensure that they require students' statuses to be reported timely to NSLDS as required by federal regulations. The College should evaluate their procedures and review policies surrounding reporting status changes to NSLDS to ensure the enrollment effective date reported to NSLDS aligns with the College’s last date of attendance.
Views of Responsible Officials:
Management agrees with the finding and has developed a plan to correct the finding.