Finding Text
Federal Agency: Department of Education
Federal Program Title: Student Financial Aid Cluster
ALN Numbers: Various
Award Period: June 1, 2024 through May 31, 2025
Type of Finding: Significant Deficiency in Internal Control over Compliance (Other Matters)
Criteria or specific requirement: The Code of Federal Regulations, 34 CFR 685.309(b), states schools must have some arrangement to report student enrollment data to NSLDS through an enrollment roster file. The school is required to report changes in the student’s enrollment status, the effective date of the status, and an anticipated completion date. Also, the Code of Federal Regulations, 34 CFR 682.610, states that institutions must report accurately the enrollment status of all students regardless if they receive aid from the institution or not. Changes to said status are required to be reported within 30 days of becoming aware of the status change, or with the next scheduled transmission of statuses if the scheduled transmission is within 60 day. There are two categories of enrollment information; "Campus Level" and "Program Level," both of which need to be reported accurately and have separate record types.
Condition: During our detail testing of NSLDS Enrollment Reporting we noted two out of 11 students tested, the enrollment effective date per institution records did not match the NSLDS enrollment effective date. Four out of 11 students tested, the campus-level enrollment effective date did not match their program-level enrollment effective date and three out of 11 students tested did not have their student change updated timely.
Questioned costs: None.
Context: The enrollment roster file contained dates that were incorrect for the Enrollment and Program Level effective dates. In the cases of this error the enrollment information should have been the date per institution's records for the Campus and Program Level. There were also instances where the information on the Enrollment and Program level were inconsistent with the College's records. Finally, Updates to NSLDS were not completed in a timely manner and some were not updated at all.
Cause: The College did not have a review process in place to ensure that NSLDS reports are being properly reported.
Effect: The NSLDS system is not updated with the student information which can cause a student to not properly enter the repayment period.
Repeat Finding: Yes, prior year finding 2024-004.
Auditor’s Recommendation: We recommend the College review its reporting procedures to ensure the students’ statuses are accurately and timely reported to NSLDS as required by regulations.
Views of responsible officials: There is no disagreement with the audit finding.