Brenda Walton

As a reminder, student and parent borrowers will be required to complete the Annual Student Loan Acknowledgment (ASLA) process for the 2021-2022 award year. This process must be completed on studentaid.gov before the borrower can receive the 1st loan disbursement for the 2021-2022 award year. Schools must inform borrowers

To all the Veterans, Thank you for your sacrifices and service to our county. In observance of Veterans Day, Federal offices as well as some of their Title IV processors and contact centers will be closed, Wednesday, November 11, 2020.

The first quarterly reporting for the institutional portion of the Higher Education Emergency Relief (HEERF) Grant report is due Friday, Oct. 30, 2020. The report should include HEERF institutional expenditures through Sept. 30, 2020. Also, subsequent reports covering expenditures for each calendar quarter are due within 10 days of each

Recently, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), spoke during a US Senate HELP (The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions) committee hearing about fixing the FAFSA, finally. During the hearing, Senator Lamar proposed five changes to streamline the FAFSA: Reduce total questions on the FAFSA from 108 questions to a maximum of

ED has posted the final rules federal register on distance education and innovation published on 9/2/20. The proposed rules were published on 4/2/20. We are providing a summary below. However, all schools should review this federal register in its entirety. There are significant changes regarding distance

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Data Retrieval Tool (DRT) will be unavailable on Sunday, April 12, 2020, from midnight to noon Eastern time (ET) as the IRS completes critical system upgrades. During this outage period, users may access fafsa.gov, the myStudentAid mobile app, and the Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) Plan

On February 24, 2020, the Department of Education (the Department) distributed the FY 2017 draft cohort default rate (CDR) notification packages to all eligible domestic and foreign schools only. In this announcement, the Department provided information about the distribution, and the begin dates for appealing the draft rates. Distribution of

Informed Borrower Tool, Renamed The 2019 FSA Training Conference First Posting of Unanswered Open Forum Questions published last week indicating that the Informed Borrower Tool scheduled to be available for 2020-21 Direct Loan award year has been renamed Annual Student Loan Acknowledgement (ASLA). The ASLA is set to be available

(December 3-5, 2019) The following information contains notes of interest from this year’s FSA Conference. While some of this information is new or updated, some items are reminders of existing requirements or processes. Keynote Address/Federal Updates/General Updates: Secretary Devos indicated FSA would function better as a stand-alone

DEAR CPA LETTER CPA-19-01 ED’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has issued Dear CPA Letter CPA-19-01. This letter amends the 2016 Audit Guide that is applicable to proprietary schools and compliance attestation engagements of 3rd party servicers. The letter adds Section C.8.12 to Chapter 3 of the

ED published the final rules federal register pertaining to Accreditation and State Authorization on 11/1/19. The rules are effective 7/1/20. However, ED has allowed for early implementation, beginning 11/1/19, for several of these regulations: Definitions as found in 600.2 – religious mission, state reciprocity

This article provides reminders of the deadlines associated with Title IV credit balances including unclaimed Title IV credit balances. This is not new guidance or new requirements by ED. These are reminders of the current requirements related to Title IV credit balances. “Credit balance” as used throughout this article is

ED distributed the Official FY 2016 CDRs. The official rate and accompanying documentation were sent to schools via their SAIG mailbox. The timeframe for appealing these official rates begins on 10/1/19. To access the electronic announcement, click below - https://ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/092319FY2016OfficialCDRDistributed092319.html

What is Constitution Day? Constitution Day is observed every year on September 17 to honor the signing and adoption of the constitution of the United States of America by the Founding Fathers in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787. Also, Constitution Day is also known as Citizenship Day, which was the

A Conversation with Senate Education Committee Staff Their priorities are: Campus Safety (Jeanne Clery Act) Simplification Common definitions/terms for Financial Aid Award Notifications Accountability and Outcomes They also feel that the Net Price Calculator is very important. But, they also feel that the total program price is important rather

On 5/24/19, ED published the federal register on verification for the 2020-2021 award year. The accompanying Dear Colleague Letter GEN-19-02 was published 6/7/19. This article is a comprehensive article on verification for 2020-2021 and includes all of the information contained in the DCL as well as

Photo by maria pagan / Unsplash As of April 7, 2019, COD System is set, ready and go for paying Title IV funds for 2019-2020 award year. It appears that COD and G5 are ready for all things 2019-2020. Here is what has been updated All of the COD message classes

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon / Unsplash The month of April is known for practical jokes and pranks on the unsuspecting. The month of April also has a serious side and it is no joke. Since 2004, April has been known as Financial Literacy Month with a focus on financial education. Learning

Photo by Eneida Hoti / Unsplash It goes without saying that working directly with students, parents, and staff is stressful. You are going to encounter upset customers and they share one common goal. They want the pain to stop and stop immediately. There are some ways of thinking and communicating that

Over the years there have been many articles on the difference between the generations. You know the articles I am referring to like who are Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y. Well, I am about to add to those articles with one of my own about Generation Z (Gen

It is challenging and stressful work especially if you are a last minute shopper! It is crunch time and you are hard pressed on finding the ultimate holiday gift for a college student or that someone who is difficult to buy for. It seems that giving a gift is not

OPENING SESSION 10% of all FAFSAs are being filed using the mobile app. ED wants to reduce the burden on students selected for verification. The 19-20 selection rates are much lower than this period for 18-19. The 18-19 rates were much higher than ED anticipated. ED will be issuing guidance

This is an interesting question about who is attending your institution these days. Photo by Andrés Gerlotti / Unsplash When we think about an undergraduate student, what comes to mind? Traditional and conventional wisdom held that college students are recent high school graduates, living on campus, taking Humanities courses (thanks to

This is a story on how the “big one” got away. To start, let’s plunge into Data Security attacks through phishing and the methods utilized. First, what is phishing? Phishing is a cybercrime in which a target or targets are contacted by email, telephone or text message by someone

Do you know what day it is? No, it’s not your Birthday or it could be! It’s October 17th which is a very special day because the third Wednesday of every October, since 2014, has been designated National Financial Aid Day. Photo by Aaron Burden / Unsplash This day