Department of Education Releases SAIHE Eligibility Criteria, Application
By Jill Desjean, NASFAA Policy & Federal Relations Staff
Update 4/7/21: The Department of Education (ED) on April 7, 2021 announced several corrections to the application process for the $113.5 million in Supplemental Assistance to Institutions of Higher Education (SAIHE) grants that were authorized under section 314(a)(3) in the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2021 (CRRSAA) for institutions with the greatest unmet needs due to coronavirus. Specifically, the notice corrects the year of the Pell Grant recipient percent that institutions must meet to be eligible for Absolute Priority 6 to Fall 2019 and removes the reference to the “December 27, 2020” date with regard to institutional eligibility for Absolute Priorities 2 and 5. All other requirements and conditions of the initial notice inviting applications remain unchanged.
The Department of Education (ED) on Monday published its application for the $113.5 million in Supplemental Assistance to Institutions of Higher Education (SAIHE) grants that were authorized under section 314(a)(3) in the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2021 (CRRSAA) for institutions with the greatest unmet needs due to coronavirus. In the Federal Register Notice, ED establishes the eligibility requirements an institution must meet to be funded under one of the seven absolute priorities.
ED established the seven eligibility priorities, incorporating input from relevant stakeholders collected during an open comment period held last month. Those include:
-
Institutions that were not designated as eligible at the time the Department allocated Minority Serving IInstitution (MSI) or Strengthening Institutions Program (SIP) funds under CRRSAA, but that were subsequently designated as eligible for Fiscal Year (FY) 2021.
-
Public and nonprofit institutions that did not receive an award because they did not report student data in the 2018-19 Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) data collection, which was the data used in calculating the formula awards for CRRSAA section 314(a)(1).
-
Institutions that were eligible to receive funding under section 18004(a)(1) of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), and attempted to apply for that funding, but were unsuccessful.
-
Branch campuses designated as eligible under Titles III and V of the Higher Education Act (HEA), according to the FY 2021 Eligibility Matrix, but were not funded through CRRSAA section 314(a)(2) either directly or through their parent institutions because the Department did not have the requisite data to calculate their allocations.
-
Institutions that were underfunded because their institution merged after Dec. 27, 2020, or had a recent change in HEA title IV Program Participation Agreement (PPA) effective date.
-
Community colleges and institutions located in rural settings that serve a high percentage of low-income students and have experienced significant enrollment declines. These institutions must meet two minimum thresholds:
-
Have had 50% or more of undergraduate students enrolled in fall 2018 be Pell Grant recipients; and
-
Have had a 4.5% or more decline in student enrollment.
-
-
Institutions for which graduate students are 90% or more of their student population.
Applications are due to ED April 28, 2021.
Publication Date: 3/29/2021
Chelsey H | 3/30/2021 5:32:26 AM
It won’t let me get to the application
You must be logged in to comment on this page.