Finding Text
Assistance Listing, Federal Agency, and Program Name ALNs 84.063; Department of Education; Federal Pell Grant Program Federal Award Identification Number and Year N/A Pass through Entity None Finding Type Significant deficiency Repeat Finding No Criteria Before disbursing Pell Grant funds, the institution must notify the student of the amount of Title IV funds including the Pell Grant the students are scheduled to receive and explain how and when those funds will be disbursed. Institutions must follow the general Title IV disbursement notice requirements under 34 CFR 668.165. Condition The University did not provide notifications to certain students related to Pell grants. Questioned Costs None Identification of How Questioned Costs Were Computed N/A Context There were 3 students in a sample of 40 students receiving Pell Grant funds which did not receive a notification. Cause and Effect A control was lacking to ensure the notifications were sent to all students receiving Pell Grant funds. Recommendation We recommend a control be implemented to ensure notifications are sent to all students receiving Pell Grant funds. Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions During the implementation of Anthology Student, the University did not receive sufficient system configuration support or training from Anthology to properly establish automated Financial Aid Offer and Title IV notification workflows. As a result, the institution did not have the required functionality in place to automatically notify students of their Pell Grant eligibility, scheduled disbursement amounts, and the timing of those disbursements as required under 34 CFR 668.165(a). This lack of configuration and training created gaps in communication and ultimately led to instances in which students did not receive timely notifications before Pell Grant funds were disbursed. Once the University identified these deficiencies, immediate corrective measures were implemented to ensure short-term compliance. Beginning in May 2025, the Financial Aid Office instituted a formal manual notification process. Staff now generate Packaging Status and Disbursement reports on a weekly basis, and these reports are reviewed and acted upon at least bi-weekly to ensure that all upcoming disbursements are captured. Individualized Title IV and Pell Grant notifications are sent to students prior to the crediting of funds. To strengthen internal controls, a secondary review was added so that another staff member verifies that all required notifications have been issued before any Title IV disbursement occurs. These interim procedures and safeguards will remain in effect until the automated notification workflow is fully configured, tested, and implemented.