Finding 586363 (2023-002)

2023 – 002 Enrollment Reporting Federal agency: Department of Education Federal program: Title: Student Financial Assistance Cluster Assistance Listing Number: 84.063 – Federal Pell Grant Program, 84.268 – Federal Direct Student Loans Award Period: June 1, 2022, to May 31, 2023 Type of Finding: Other Matters Finding related to Compliance within Uniform Guidance and Significant Deficiency in Internal Control Over Compliance Criteria or specific requirement: The Code of Federal Regulations, 34 CFR 685.309 requires that enrollment status changes for students be reported to NSLDS within 30 days or within 60 days if the student with the status change will be reported on a scheduled transmission within 60 days of the change in status. Regulations require the status include an accurate effective date. In addition, regulations require that an institution make necessary corrections and return the records within 10 days for any roster files that don’t pass the NSLDS enrollment reporting edits. Condition: During our testing of the Direct Loan and Pell Grant programs, we selected a sample of 40 students to test for timeliness of reporting student status changes to the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS). During our testing, we noted two instances where the effective date of a student status change was improperly reported to the NSLDS and one instance where the enrollment status was improperly reported to the NSLDS. Questioned costs: None Context: Out of a sample of 40 students selected for testing for the requirement noted above, we noted three exceptions as described above. Cause: Two students were dual degree students which requires their status change to be manually inputted. During manual input for these two students, the College improperly used the commencement date rather than the last day of class as the effective date of the status change. For the third student, the College failed to report the student status change from Full-Time to Withdrawal to NSLDS. Effect: Incorrect effective dates or enrollment status’ were reported to the NSLDS. Repeat Finding: No. Recommendation: We recommend that the College review and implement procedures to ensure that the correct date and status is reported to the NSLDS in all cases. Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions: There is no disagreement with the audit finding. See Corrective Action Plan prepared by the College.