Finding Text
Program Name: Student Financial Assistance Cluster
Federal Assistance Listing Numbers: 84.007, 84.033, 84.063, and 84.268
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 – The following deficiencies were noted:
- 53 of 60 students’ effective dates were not accurately reported in NSLDS (date of change do not agree to effective dates).
- 12 of 60 students’ enrollment statuses were not accurately reported in NSLDS (status per student accounts do not agree to status per NSLDS).
- 59 of 60 students’ program begin date were not accurately reported in NSLDS (student’s program start date does not agree to program begin date per NSLDS).
Questioned Costs
There are no questioned costs associated with this finding.
Context
We tested a non-statistical sample of 60 student status changes of a total 287 changes reported by the District during the 2023 fiscal year.
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 timely or accurately due to an error in data mapping within the student information systems database prior to submission to National Student Clearinghouse.
Repeat Finding (Yes or No)
No
RecommendationThe 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.