Finding Text
Special Test and Provisions – Enrollment Reporting
Program Name: Student Financial Assistance Cluster
Assistance Listing Number: 84.063, 84.268, 84.007, and 84.033
Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Education (ED)
Direct funded by the U.S. Department of Education (ED)
Criteria or Specific Requirements
OMB Compliance Supplement, OMB No. 1845-0035 – Institutions are required to report enrollment information under the Pell grant and the Direct and FFEL loan programs via the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS).
Institutions must review, update, and verify student enrollment statuses, program information, and effective dates that appear on the Enrollment Reporting Roster file or on the Enrollment Maintenance page of the NSLDS Professional Access (NSLDSFAP) website which the financial aid administrator can access for the auditor. The data on the institutions’ Enrollment Reporting Roster, or Enrollment Maintenance page, is what NSLDS has as the most recently certified enrollment information. There are two categories of enrollment information: “Campus Level” and “Program Level”, both of which need to be reported accurately and have separate record types. The NSLDS Enrollment Reporting Guide provides the requirements and guidance for reporting enrollment details using the NSLDS Enrollment Reporting Process.
Condition
Significant Deficiency in Internal Control over Compliance – During testing over the NSLDS reporting requirements, 29 of 60 students’ effective dates were not accurately reported in NSLDS (date of change do not agree to effective dates).
Questioned Costs
There are no questioned costs associated with the noncompliance.
Context
The District disbursed financial aid to approximately 1,449 students that required student enrollment and program enrollment reporting to NSLDS.
Effect
The District is not in compliance with the federal enrollment reporting requirements described in the OMB compliance supplement.
Cause
The District did not report enrollment information for students under the Pell Grant and Direct Loan Programs via NSLDS accurately. The District identified a technical issue related to extracting the correct enrollment effective date and, instead, reported the run date of the enrollment statuses.
Repeat Finding (Yes or No)
No.
Recommendation
The District should implement a process to review, update, and verify student enrollment statuses, program information, and effective dates that appear on the Enrollment Reporting Roster file or on the Enrollment Maintenance page of the NSLDS Professional Access (NSLDSFAP) website.