Finding Text
Program: Federal Pell Grant Program CFDA 84.063. Criteria: Per 34 Code of Federal Regulations ("CFR") 690.62 Calculation of a Federal Pell Grant, the amount of a student's Pell Grant for an academic year is based upon the payment and disbursement schedules published by the Secretary for each award year. The Uniform Guidance Compliance Supplement states that the Department of Education provides institutions Payment Disbursement Schedules for determining Pell awards each year. The Payment or Disbursement Schedule provides the maximum annual amount a student would receive for a full academic year for a given enrollment status, Expected Family Contribution ("EFC") and Cost of Attendance ("COA"). The Payment Schedule is used to determine the annual award for full-time, three-quarter time, half-time and less-than-half-time students. Condition: The College's internal controls surrounding the awarding and disbursement of Pell Grants to students were not adequate to maintain compliance with Title IV regulations. Repeat Finding from Prior Year: No. Questioned Cost: None. Context: Out of the 40 students tested, one student was not properly awarded or disbursed Pell Grant aid based on the classes in which they began attendance. The student should have received $3,447 for fall and spring, respectively; however, only received $2,585 each semester causing a total underpayment of $1,724. Effect: Cleveland Institute of Art did not meet the requirement of ensuring that proper Pell Grant amounts are awarded and disbursed to students. Cause: The underpayment indentified is due to the Powerfaids and SIS program integration that caused the student's actual credit hours to not correctly update into the Powerfaids system. Recommendation: A system of internal controls surrounding the awarding of Pell Grants in the correct amount should be put in place and take place prior to the disbursement of funds to the student. Management Response: Management acknowledges that there was an error in the amount of Pell awarded to the student. Cleveland Institute of Art reviewed all Pell awards for 2022-2023 and discovered a total of five occurrences of a Pell Grant being under awarded totaling $6,588. Students impacted will be credited for any error in their initial award. The College is also reconfiguiring its systems to ensure that this error does not occur in the future.