Finding Text
Finding No. 2022-001: Enrollment Reporting; Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Education; AL Number and Title: 84.268 ? Federal Direct Student Loan Program; Criteria: Title 34, Section 685.304 of the CFR states that an institution must ensure that entrance counseling is conducted with each Direct Subsidized Loan or Direct Unsubsidized Loan student borrower prior to making the first disbursement of the proceeds of a loan to a student borrower. Condition: During our audit, we noted that for 1 out of 40 students we selected for testing, the Seminary did not provide entrance counseling to a first-time borrower prior to disbursing the proceeds of the loan to the student borrower. Cause: The Seminary did not have a control in place to ensure timely completion of the entrance counseling. Effect: The Seminary did not comply with Title 34, Section 685.304 with respect to the above referenced first-time borrower. Recommendation: We recommend that the Seminary establish controls to ensure that first-time borrowers complete entrance counseling prior to the disbursement of funds to the student?s account. View of responsible officials: ATS agrees with the audit finding. With the Department of Education terminating Financial Awareness Counseling, this helps avoid confusing the two documents. To prevent disbursing future Title IV loan funds to student accounts without the proper entrance counseling on file, a new process has been implemented. The Associate Director of Financial Aid, Mariah Shumate, will now cross check each new disbursement record prior to requesting funds from the Department of Education.