ED Provides NSLDS Update at NASFAA National Conference

By Eunice Powell, NASFAA Regulatory Specialist

Department of Education (ED) officials Valerie Sherrer and Eric Hardy provided an update on the NSLDS system functions, processing, and reporting at the 2016 NASFAA Conference in Washington, DC, last month.

In 2016, ED made significant changes to enrollment reporting in NSLDS, Sherrer and Hardy said. Some of the more noteworthy changes include:

Program Level History View: This page provides schools with a full view of a student’s program enrollment history. From this page, a user can access the Program Certification Detail page, which displays information on each enrollment certification status for a single program. Schools may find this data useful in researching a borrower’s subsidy usage.

Enrollment Submittal Tracking: This page, which is accessible through the Enrollment Reporting Profile page, allows schools to monitor their enrollment data for completeness, as well as for errors made in reporting.

Roster Reset: This feature allows schools to revert all students back onto their roster. ED urged schools to use caution when electing to use this tool, as submitting a reset may cause students with terminal statuses such as graduated or withdrawn to reappear on their rosters.

Late Enrollment Certification Report: This tool allows schools to request a list of students who have not been certified after a specified date identified by the school. Schools may find this report useful to track those students whose enrollment information has not been reported.

Enrollment Reporting Monitoring: This feature will arrive in late 2016. NSLDS will send out a series of compliance letters to schools that fall below 90 percent on their program level reporting statistics. Ultimately, schools that fail to comply with reporting standards will be referred to Program Compliance. More information on NSLDS enhancements may be found in ED NSLDS Newsletters #53 and #55.

ED also reminded attendees of the upcoming reporting deadline for gainful employment (GE) programs. The deadline for all schools to report GE program information for the 2015-16 award year, as well as submit any revisions to previously reported GE information is Oct. 1, 2016. Please note that GE reporting only includes students who received Title IV aid to attend the GE program being reported. Additional information on this reminder is detailed in ED's Aug. 4, 2016 Electronic Announcement and also in this session handout.

Publication Date: 8/9/2016