Finding 1187003 (2025-001)

Finding 2025-001: Enrollment Reporting Federal Program: Federal Direct Student Loan Program Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Education Pass-Through Entity: Not applicable Assistance Listing Number: 84.268 Federal Award Year: June 30, 2025 Criteria: Title IV regulations (34 CFR 685.309(b)) require that upon receipt of an enrollment report from the Department of Education Office of the Secretary (Secretary), institutions must update all information included in the report and return the report to the Secretary: (i) in the manner and format prescribed by the Secretary; and (ii) within the timeframe prescribed by the Secretary. Unless it expects to submit its next updated enrollment report to the Secretary within the next 60 days, an institution must notify the Secretary within 30 days after the date the institution discovers that: (i) a loan under Title IV of the Act was made to or on behalf of a student who was enrolled or accepted for enrollment at the institution, and the student has ceased to be enrolled on at least a half-time basis or failed to enroll on at least a half-time basis for the period for which the loan was intended; or (ii) a student who is enrolled at the institution and who received a loan under Title IV of the Act has changed his or her permanent address. Condition: The change in student status for 1 of the 25 students tested was not reported to the National Student Loan Data Systems (NSLDS) within 30 days or included in a response to a roster file within 60 days. However, the student was ultimately reported to the NSLDS. The sample was not a statistically valid sample but was determined using Chapter 21 - Audit Sampling Considerations of Uniform Guidance Compliance Audits of the Government Auditing Standards and Single Audit Guide. Cause: The College's procedures for reporting all student status changes were not appropriately followed to allow for timely and accurate reporting to NSLDS. Effect: The accuracy of Title IV student loan records depends heavily on the accuracy of the enrollment information reported by the College. If an institution does not review, update and verify student enrollment statuses, effective dates of the enrollment status and the anticipated completion dates, then the Title IV student loan records will be inaccurate and could affect student loan repayments. Questioned Costs: None. Recommendation: The College should review their policy on enrollment reporting to NSLDS to ensure all status changes during the year are reported in a timely and accurate manner. Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions: To prevent this situation from arising in the future, the College has changed the way students are tracked when degree conferrals are entered into the student information system after the date on which the graduates upload has been sent to National Student Clearinghouse (NSC). This process change will highlight those students whose conferrals must be manually reported to NSC because they were not included in the initial upload of graduates sent to NSC. In addition, students taking credits off campus are now required to have transcripts submitted to the office within 30 days of the conferral date. If transcripts containing credits necessary for graduation are received more than 30 days after the conferral date, the student’s degree conferral will be pushed back to the next available degree conferral date.