Finding Text
Federal Program - Federal Direct Student Loan Program
Federal Agency - U.S. Department of Education
Pass-Through Entity - Not Applicable
CFDA Number - 84.268
Federal Award Year - June 30, 2023
Criteria: 34 CFR 685.309(b) states that upon receipt of an enrollment report from the Secretary, a school must update all information included in the report and return the report to the Secretary in the manner and format prescribed by the Secretary and 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, a school must notify the Secretary within 30 days after the date the school discovers that 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 school, 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.
Condition: For two students tested, the effective date that was reported to National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) did not match the date that the students withdrew. For one other student, the change of status from full time to graduate was not reported to the NSLDS within 30 days or included in a response to a roster file within 60 days. However, the student was ultimately reported to NSLDS.
Cause: The withdrawal effective date errors were related to a census data reporting used to calculate withdrawals in the files being sent and processed by the National Student Clearinghouse, which ultimately was then reported to NSLDS.
Effect: The accuracy of Title IV student loan records depends heavily on the accuracy of the enrollment information reported by schools. 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 in accurate impacting student loan repayments.
Questioned Costs: None
Context: Out of the twenty-five students tested, two were student withdrawals, twenty were graduates, and three were other status changes. Out of the two withdrawal students tested, both had incorrect effective dates reported to NSLDS as noted in Condition above. Out of the twenty graduate students tested, one was reported untimely to NSLDS as noted in Condition above. There were no compliance findings noted for the three other status changes. The sample was not considered statistically valid.
Recommendation: It is recommended that policies and procedures are put in place to verify that the correct effective dates are reported to NSLDS within required time frames. This could include a review of withdrawal or graduation dates compared to the effective dates reported to NSLDS to make sure they are accurate.
Views of Responsible Officials: The College has noted the issue and it has since been rectified and has re-ran the process to provide the proper effective dates for withdrawn students to the National Student Clearinghouse. The College does report to the National Student Clearinghouse every 30 days. The College will review the policies and procedures to ensure they support the proper NSLDS reporting requirement procedures to National Student Clearinghouse and NSLDS. Training has been provided to those responsible for manual adjustments to records having extenuating circumstances.