Posts by Peter Terebesi

On September 27, 2021, the Official Cohort Default Rates were released for the 2018 Fiscal Year. Since 2013, the National Student Loan Cohort Default Rate has been trending down. The official 2018 rate is now 7.3%, down from last year’s (2017) rate of 9.7% According to Federal Student Aid’s National Default Briefing, the highest Defaults…

Citing high levels of unemployment related to the pandemic, the Department of ED’s Office of Postsecondary Education announced that the Department will be partnering with states’ Labor Departments to make Unemployment Insurance recipients aware of their potential eligibility for Pell Grants if they go back to school. ED reminded institutions of their authority to make…

It’s been a while since the Program Integrity Questions and Answers page was updated, but last month the Department updated the Frequently Asked Questions page with updates on the new Withdrawal and R2T4 rules that took effect on July 1, 2021. The rules made updates to several regulations: Updated the order of return (for both…

Federal Student Aid recently issued updated guidance for schools to assign Defaulted Perkins Loans that have been in default for longer than two years to the Department. Institutions will have through June 30, 2022 to either assign or purchase loans that have been in default for more than two years. If an institution determines that…

When Title IV funds disbursed to a student’s account result in a Title IV credit balance, there may be occasions when the school is unable to deliver the appropriate amount of the credit balance refund (e.g., when the student fails to cash or deposit a check or if an electronic funds transfer is unsuccessful). In…

Last month the U.S. Department of Education announced temporary changes to the verification requirements for the 2021-2022 award year. These much welcome changes allow schools to waive verification requirements for students selected for V1 verification and focus verification on identity and fraud. Although students in V4 and V5 verification groups must still provide proof of…

Federal Student Aid announced that they were extending the deadline for schools to add the Coronavirus Indicator and R2T4 reporting deadlines for title iv disbursements until September 30, 2021. The Coronavirus Indicator will be accepted for any qualifying disbursement with a payment period start date between January 8, 2018, and July 1, 2022, if all…

On July 1, 2021, several regulatory packages take effect including changes to the Clock-to-Credit Conversion formula.  If you offer undergraduate non-degree programs in credit hours the new rules will determine the number of Title IV credit hours associated with each class in a program. According to an electronic announcement from FSA, under the previous formula,…