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Inceptia's SAP Advisor is a fully automated online solution that provides students, faculty and the financial aid staff with the tools to effectively manage Satisfactory Academic Progress appeals quickly and seamlessly. SAP Advisor increases efficiency and empowers students to actively engage which improves the opportunity for successful outcomes. Visit Inceptia.org to learn more.

Last week, the House of Representatives introduced two separate pieces of legislation that address two issues of interest to financial aid administrators. One enacts a system to ensure states or institutions prohibit illegal immigrants from receiving student aid if not “available to all citizens and nationals of the United States.” The other would exclude a misdemeanor charge for possession of marijuana from its current classification as a “drug-related offense” for the purposes of student eligibility.

A college wants to offer a gainful employment (GE) program that prepares a student to work in a certain occupation, but would like to disclose that the program does not satisfy the educational prerequisites for licensure in State B, only those of State A. How should the college indicate this when it signs the transitional certification for it GE programs and updates its Eligibility and Certification Approval Report (ECAR)? Read on to see if you got the answer right.

Find out how other schools help students re-establish Title IV eligibility during NASFAA’s Satisfactory Academic Progress Appeals webinar, September 30, 2:00-3:30 pm ET. School panelists will share how their schools manage the appeal process and develop academic plans to best help students achieve their academic goals. The webinar is offered at a cost of $120 for members and $240 for non-members. There is no additional cost for webinar package purchasers, however advanced registration is still required. Register today to save your spot.

NASFAA is here to help you stay up to date on the top policy events occurring throughout the week in Washington, D.C. and, when applicable, across the country. Make sure to check back in to Today's News each morning for coverage of some of the events, and email us at [email protected] if you're aware of upcoming policy events that could be of interest to the financial aid community.

Congress:
The House is in session Monday through Wednesday. The Senate is in session Monday through Friday.

Tuesday:

• Negotiated Rulemaking Committee Meeting for Borrower Defense, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm ET
• State of the Union Address, 9:00 pm ET

Wednesday:

• Negotiated Rulemaking Committee Meeting for Borrower Defense, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm ET

Thursday:

• Negotiated Rulemaking Committee Meeting for Borrower Defense, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm ET

As explained in a March 20, 2015 Electronic Announcement on the Information for Financial Aid Professionals Web site, the Department implemented Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) System functionality to support 2015-2016 Award Year processing. 

In a July 20, 2015 Electronic Announcement on the Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) Web site, schools were notified that the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) began notifying the federal loan servicers of borrowers who have lost eligibility for the interest subsidy on their existing Direct Subsidized Loans. In this announcement, the Department reminds schools of key information that must be verified and reported correctly to the Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) System or NSLDS as applicable.

As will be fully described in an upcoming electronic announcement posted to the Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) Web site, the Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) System will implement additional functionality for the 2015-2016 Award Year during the period October 9-11, 2015.

The Department is recruiting for one or more experienced financial aid professionals to join the Policy Liaison and Implementation staff (PLI) here in Federal Student Aid (FSA).

The COD Processing Update provides information related to COD System processing and includes the following sections: COD News and Updates, Current Issues (with a subsection for All Programs, Direct Loans, and Grants), and Reminders.

The U.S. Department of Education (Department) requests OMB clearance for a survey of a purposively selected sample of 65 institutions of higher education, and a sample of 500 randomly selected grant recipients participating in the TEACH Grant program.

"Democratic lawmakers are joining with House Republicans in a last-ditch effort to save the decades-old Federal Perkins Loan Program, which is set to expire next week," The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.

"College Abacus is a free online tool for students and families to compare college pricing -- using net-price estimates taken from colleges and federal databases," Inside Higher Ed reports.

"Student loans can get out of control in a hurry, mostly because students don't find out about their total debt until it's too late. Indiana University decided to change that," according to USA Today.

"For the last seven years, Long Beach, Calif., has worked to develop a path from the earliest levels of public school to college by establishing a partnership among its city government, state university, community college and K-12 systems," Inside Higher Ed reports.

"The halls of Randolph Technical High School looks like almost any other public school in an urban core: a labyrinth of classrooms and lockers housed in an old building, hallways loud with constant chatter and chaos as students and teachers bustle around. But inside these classrooms, students are just as likely to be found working dental X-ray machines or learning how to sauté vegetables as they are to be sitting at a desk, learning about math or history," according to The Atlantic.

"Earlier this week I was watching the Today Show (no comments, please), which included a segment with Suze Orman, the personal finance guru. ... The woman said she is 25, recently graduated from college with $40,000 in student loan debt, and has just signed up for the income-based repayment program. She asked Suze whether this was the right thing to do," Stephanie Eidelman writes in an opinion piece for Inside ARM. "Without hesitation, Suze said unfortunately it was not the right thing to do."

"A bipartisan coalition in Congress is working to save a federal loan program for the neediest college students that is set to end next week. But some education experts and lawmakers say it may be time to let the Federal Perkins Loan Program die," The Washington Post's Grade Point reports. "If Perkins is saved, lawmakers will have a chance to revamp the program this fall as part of the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, said Karen McCarthy, senior policy analyst for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators."

"A judge who’s weighing whether Johnson & Wales University needs to return tuition money following the bankruptcy filing by a former student’s parents wants to know who exactly paid the tuition, the parents or the government," The Wall Street Journal's Bankruptcy Beat reports.

"When my colleague and I wrote our Tough Love report last year, we recommended the federal government draw a line at the bottom 5 percent of four-year institutions in terms of their performance in carrying out the core purposes underlying federal student aid: low-income student access, student graduation, and student loan repayment," according to a blog from Education Reform Now.

"By 2017, the closure rate of small colleges is likely to triple from the rate of the past decade, according to a new report from Moody’s Investors Service," The Chronicle of Higher Education's The Ticker reports.

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