Finding Text
Federal Program Information: Federal Direct Student Loan Program (ALN#: 84.268) Criteria or Specific Requirement: N. Special Test and Provisions ? Disbursements To or On Behalf of Students ? Loan Disbursement Notification - Federal regulations (34 CFR section 668.165 (a)(6)(i)) require that the institution notify the student, or parent, in writing of (1) the date and amount of the disbursement; (2) the student?s right, or parent?s right, to cancel all or a portion of that loan or loan disbursement and have the loan proceeds returned to the holder of that loan or the TEACH Grant payments returned to the U.S. Department of Education; and (3) the procedure and time by which the student or parent must notify the institution that he or she wishes to cancel the loan, TEACH Grant, or TEACH Grant disbursement. Institutions that implement an affirmative confirmation process (as described in 34 CFR section 668.165 (a)(6)(i)) must make this notification to the student or parent no earlier than 30 days before, and no later than 30 days after, crediting the student?s account at the institution with Direct Loan or TEACH Grants. The Federal Student Aid Handbook further clarifies that in general, there are two types of notifications a school must provide: (1) a general notification to parent Direct PLUS borrowers and all students receiving Federal Student Aid (?FSA?) funds, and (2) a notice when FSA loan funds or TEACH Grant funds are credited to a student?s account. Condition: Certain borrowers did not receive a loan disbursement notification or did not receive notification timely. Cause: Insufficient internal controls and administrative oversight with respect to loan disbursement notifications. Effect or Potential Effect: Borrowers were not notified of loan disbursements and/or their right to cancel/decline loan awards or were not notified in a timely manner. Questioned Costs: None. Context: For 4 of 25 disbursements selected for testing, the University did not send the disbursement notification within the required timeframe. For 7 of 25 disbursements selected for testing, the University was unable to provide documentation showing that a notification was sent to the borrower as required. Identification as a Repeat Finding: There was no similar finding identified during the prior year. Recommendation: We recommend the University enhance its procedures over loan disbursement notifications to ensure that such notifications are sent to student and/or parent borrowers within the required timeframe. Views of Responsible Officials: The Financial Planning Office has reviewed the loan disbursement notification process to ensure that notices are sent in a timely manner to needed recipients. After a review of the 2021-2022 award cycle, it was determined that an application ID was missing from the Direct PLUS Loan file that prevented the disbursement notification from being issued to the Parent borrower in some instances. Internal controls have been put in place for the 2022-2023 award cycle and beyond so that this data element is accurately assigned.