Finding 960261 (2023-001)

Finding No. 2023-001 Student Financial Assistance Cluster: U.S. Department of Education: Federal Pell Grant Program – ALN 84.063 Federal Direct Loan Program – ALN 84.268 Statistically valid sample: No and it was not intended to be. Repeat finding: Not a repeat finding. Compliance Requirement – Special Tests and Provisions - Enrollment Reporting – Significant Deficiency and Noncompliance Criteria Institutions are required to report enrollment information under the Pell grant and the Direct loan program via the NSLDS (OMB No. 1845-0035). The administration of the Title IV programs depends heavily on the accuracy and timeliness of the enrollment information reported by institutions. Institutions must review, update, and certify 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 institution’s Enrollment Reporting Roster, or Enrollment Maintenance page, is what NSLDS has as the most recently certified enrollment. 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. Institutions are responsible for timely reporting, whether they report directly or via a third-party servicer. Institutions must complete and return within 15 days the Enrollment Reporting roster file placed in their Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) (OMB No. 1845-0002) mailboxes sent by ED via NSLDS. An institution determines how often it receives the Enrollment Reporting roster file with the default set at a minimum of every 60 days. Once received, the institution must update for changes in the data elements for the Campus Record and the Program Record identified above, and submit the changes electronically through the batch method, spreadsheet submittal, or the NSLDS website (Pell, 34 CFR 690.83(b)(2); Direct Loan, 34 CFR 685.309). Condition and Context We selected forty students who received a Federal Direct Loan or a Pell Grant and whose enrollment status changed during the year and noted the following exceptions. For six enrollment status changes, the status change was not reported within 60 days. Five of these six were reported 65 days late, and the last was reported 128 days late. For four of the late enrollment status changes noted above, the changes were inaccurately reported as withdrawals, when instead, they related to a graduate status change. There was one enrollment status change that was not reported to NSLDS. Cause The University uses a system generated file to report enrollment status changes. The system generated file was not configured appropriately to flag enrollment status for students graduating from a bachelor’s program and who were enrolled in a master’s program resulting in status changes to be inaccurate and not timely reported. In addition, the one student who was not reported was due to an incorrect social security number which resulted in a processing error with National Student Clearinghouse which was not corrected by the University. Effect Enrollment status changes not reported in a timely manner could impact the timeliness of the student entering repayment status. Questioned Costs There were no questioned costs related to this finding. Recommendation We recommend that the University strengthen its policies and procedures to ensure that student enrollment changes are accurately reported to NSLDS within 60 days of the status change. The University should provide training to the departments responsible for the accuracy and timeliness of this reporting. Views of Responsible Official Management agrees with the recommendation. The University understands the importance of accurate and timely reporting of enrollment status and immediately resolved the issues of correcting student records in the NSLDS system and configured the system generated file to correct the status that is reported for students who graduate with a bachelor’s degree and continue in school to pursue a master’s degree. The University will also add a control to review processing errors from the National Student Clearinghouse submissions. The Associate Provost and Registrar will ensure that processes are in place to comply with the recommendation.