Finding Text
2022-002 National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) Enrollment Reporting Type of Finding ? Significant Deficiency and Noncompliance Student Financial Assistance Cluster: Federal Direct Loans ? CFDA 84.268 Criteria: 34 CFR 690.83(b)(2) and 34 CFR 685.309 provide regulations to institutions for the accurate and timely reporting of student enrollment information. Institutions must review, update, and verify student enrollment statuses, program information, and effective dates. The institution should have sufficient internal controls over program compliance to report information accurately and timely. Condition: Two students that withdrew from the College were found to have status change effective dates reported to the NSLDS that were not compliant with enrollment reporting guidelines. Questioned Costs: None identified. Context: Out of a sample of 40 students with status changes, two students that withdrew were identified as having incorrect dates reported to the NSLDS. Effect: Dates reported to the Department of Education impact when students enter repayment on outstanding student loans. Incorrect dates reported to the Department of Education could cause a student to enter repayment at a time not in accordance with related regulations. Cause: For the 2021-2022 award year, the College modified its process for enrollment reporting of withdrawing students. The enrollment services department had responsibility for identifying the effective withdraw dates prior to the 2021-2022 award year. This responsibility was transferred to the student affairs department for the 2021- 2022 award year. Personnel within student affairs did not have sufficient knowledge of regulations governing the determination of effective withdraw dates for student?s with student financial assistance. The internal controls over review of the effective dates provided to the registrar?s office by student affairs were not effective at preventing or detecting and correcting the incorrectly identified effective dates. Identification as a Repeat Finding: Not a repeat finding. Recommendation: We recommend the individual responsible for identifying effective status change dates for withdrawing students receive training on the requirements. We also recommend that a separate individual with sufficient knowledge of the reporting requirements perform a periodic and timely review of the student status change effective dates to verify the dates are in accordance with Department of Education regulations. Views of Responsible Officials: McPherson College agrees with the finding and the recommendations. The College is identifying the appropriate resource and providing training on the regulations to those involved within the enrollment reporting process.