Finding 412048 (2022-001)

Significant Deficiency
Requirement
N
Questioned Costs
-
Year
2022
Accepted
2023-03-02

AI Summary

  • Core Issue: The college failed to provide exit counseling to 2 out of 40 students before they ceased half-time study, violating federal regulations.
  • Impacted Requirements: Compliance with 34 CFR 685.304, which mandates both entrance and exit counseling for federal loan recipients.
  • Recommended Follow-Up: Review and improve policies on exit counseling to ensure all students receive required counseling and that entrance counseling is documented prior to loan disbursement.

Finding Text

2022 ? 001: Student Eligibility and Awarding: Exit CounselingFederal Agency: Department of EducationFederal Program: Student Federal Assistance Cluster- Direct LoansAssistance Listing Number: 84.268Award Period: July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022Type of Finding: Significant Deficiency in Internal Control over Compliance and NoncomplianceCriteria: The Code of Federal Regulations, 34 CFR 685.304 require entrance counseling be performedbefore disbursing loan funds to the student for Direct Subsidized Loan, Direct Unsubsidized Loan andDirect PLUS Loan to a graduate or professional student . The regulations also require exit counselingfor all students who ceases at least half-time study at the school.Condition: Two out of 40 students selected for testing, in our statistically valid sample, did not receiveexit counseling within the required timeframe prescribed by the Department of Education.Questioned Costs: None.Context: The College disbursed $1,316,928 in Federal Direct Student Loan Program during the fiscalyear.Cause: The College?s? internal controls did not ensure compliance with the applicable Title IVregulations.Effect: Students are not receiving the proper loan counseling which may contribute to a higher defaultrate.Repeat Finding: This was not a finding in the prior year.Recommendation: We recommend the college review its policies and procedures around disbursingexit counseling information to students to ensure students are receiving proper counseling and ensureentrance counseling is documented before loans disbursements are made.Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions: Please refer to the attachedCorrective Action Plan.

Corrective Action Plan

2022 ? 001: Student Financial Aid Cluster - Student Eligibility and Awarding: Exit Counseling ?Program Number 84.268Recommendation: We recommend the college review its policies and procedures around disbursingexit counseling information to students to ensure students are receiving proper counseling and ensureentrance counseling is documented before loans disbursements are made.Explanation of disagreement with audit finding: There is no disagreement with the audit finding.Action taken in response to finding: The Financial Aid Office recognized that the exit loan counselingrule was not being met prior to the commencement of the 2021-2022 audit. The following action planwas already taking shape during the annual audit of 2021-2022 to ensure compliance rule would bemet for the 2022-2023 aid year.Process: Use SIS Colleague system to run query to identify current loan borrowers at beginning andend of term to identify those who have ceased half-time enrollment. Send communication via email andphysical letter notification to ensure student receive important information about loan repaymentresponsibilities, including Department of Education links and contact information.Procedure: Created documentation with step by step procedures for assigned staff to run query toidentify students, request exit loan counseling communication, and run batch posting of communication.Communication: Loan borrowers will receive an email on Day 1 run, a second email on Day 14 run, anda paper letter on Day 30 run.Staff Training: Staff assigned to the Loan program have been trained to run process by ourSystems/Programmer. Financial Aid Staff have been provided information about policy and proceduresto assist students who may contact our office for assistance after receiving exit loan counselingcommunication.Quality Assurance: Two additional staff members have been assigned to help with the Loan program.Name(s) of the contact person(s) responsible for corrective action: Chau Dao - Director ofFinancial AidPlanned completion date for corrective action plan: November 2022.

Categories

Student Financial Aid Eligibility Significant Deficiency Matching / Level of Effort / Earmarking Internal Control / Segregation of Duties

Other Findings in this Audit

  • 412042 2022-002
    Significant Deficiency
  • 412043 2022-003
    Significant Deficiency
  • 412044 2022-002
    Significant Deficiency
  • 412045 2022-003
    Significant Deficiency
  • 412046 2022-002
    Significant Deficiency
  • 412047 2022-003
    Significant Deficiency
  • 412049 2022-001
    Significant Deficiency
  • 412050 2022-002
    Significant Deficiency
  • 988484 2022-002
    Significant Deficiency
  • 988485 2022-003
    Significant Deficiency
  • 988486 2022-002
    Significant Deficiency
  • 988487 2022-003
    Significant Deficiency
  • 988488 2022-002
    Significant Deficiency
  • 988489 2022-003
    Significant Deficiency
  • 988490 2022-001
    Significant Deficiency
  • 988491 2022-001
    Significant Deficiency
  • 988492 2022-002
    Significant Deficiency

Programs in Audit

ALN Program Name Expenditures
84.063 Pell Grant $23.45M
84.425 Covid-19 Heerf - Student Aid $19.23M
84.425 Covid-19 Heerf - Institutional $14.76M
84.268 Federal Direct Student Loans $1.32M
84.048 Perkins Title I-C (basic Grants to States) $803,421
84.033 Federal Work Study (fws) $548,762
59.037 Small Business Development Center (sbdc) $387,502
84.423 Community Partnerships for Teacher Pipeline $247,310
47.079 Replication of Corhort-Based Computer Science Bachelor's Degree Model $229,827
11.611 Manufacturing Extension Partnership $148,855
81.087 Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute $145,556
84.063 Administrative Allowance - Pell $122,470
93.658 Foster and Kinship Care Education Program $122,289
17.285 Expanding Community College Apprenticeships Initiative (aacc Ecca) $120,517
59.037 Covid-19: Small Business Development Center (sbdc) $79,208
12.600 California Advanced Defense Ecosystems & National Consortia Effort (cadence) $48,397
84.007 Supplemental Educational Opportunities Grant (seog) $35,052
10.580 Calfresh Snap Outreach Program (cfo) $20,931
64.117 Veterans Education $11,384
47.076 Lsamp - Washignton Baltimore Hampton Roads Alliance $10,000
94.006 Americorps National Service Awards $3,337
93.558 Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (tanf) $1,000
47.070 Frontier Opportunities in Computing for Underrepresented Students $470