Finding Text
2025‐002 Significant Deficiency: Working During Scheduled Class Time (U.S. Department of Education - Federal Work Study Program, ALN #84.033) Criteria: In accordance with the 2024-2025 Federal Student Aid Handbook, in general, students are not permitted to work in Federal Work Study positions during scheduled class times. Exceptions are permitted if an individual class is cancelled, if the instructor has excused the student from attending for a particular day, and if the student is receiving credit for employment in an internship, externship, or community work-study experience. Any such exemptions must be documented. Statement of Condition: During the audit, it was noted that multiples students appear to have been paid for Federal Work Study hours logged and submitted for time the student was scheduled to be in class. The reasons for overlap vary, but no reasonable exemption could be verified. Questioned Costs: The known monetary error is an over-payment of $99. Extrapolation of the error across all students and pay periods that may have been affected estimates total possible monetary error of $3,115. Therefore, the monetary impact of this deficiency does not exceed the reporting threshold of $25,000. Perspective Information: The audit included a detailed testing of 9 files for students participating in the Federal Work Study program during the 2024-2025 award year, and limited detail testing of an additional 22 students’ Federal Work Study documents pertaining to this specific attribute. For the 31 students tested, auditors vouched class schedules, timecards, and paystubs for two specific pay periods, one in each semester. Of these students for the specific pay periods tested, overlap between submitted work study hours paid and classes scheduled without reasonable exception was identified in the records for five students. Therefore, we consider the error rate as 16.13%. Cause and Effect: In certain cases of conflicting times, class took place as scheduled, but the student was not present, choosing to work instead; other cases appear to be related to students being present in class, but also clocked into their work study position, resulting in payment for hours not worked at all. In all instances, supervisors did not identify the conflicts when reviewing and submitting timesheets for payroll processing and funds were paid to the students for the overlapping times, which is prohibited without an adequate exemption that has been appropriately documented. Recommendation: The University should ensure that proper safeguards, in both software and personnel, are in place to prevent, identify, and remediate such errors to prevent over-payment of federal aid funds. View of Responsible Officials: The University concurs with the finding. The University provided a reminder via email to all students and supervisors each pay period throughout the year that students are not allowed to work during scheduled class times without documentation. Supervisor training was required of all FWS supervisors in August 2025 to emphasize the importance of compliance with this specific aspect of FWS as well as all other federal requirements governing the FWS program. Supervisors are expected to monitor when their students are beginning work and request documentation if clock-in, or any period of their work, falls within a scheduled class period.