Last week, NASFAA joined with NACUBO and several student groups in sending a letter to Senators asking for additional technical changes to the Higher Education and Opportunity Act (HEOA) that would alter the student self-certification form. The genesis of the letter came from nonfederal negotiators on the Team II negotiated rulemaking committee.

The letter requests that the data elements currently prescribed by law on the private student loan self-certification form be changed because they will do more harm than good. The law currently requires schools to provide students with the following data elements for self-certification.

• Cost of attendance (COA)
• Expected family contribution (EFC)
• Estimated financial assistance (EFA)
• Unmet need (COA-EFA)
• The sum of EFC and unmet need (EFC + (COA-EFA))

Nonfederal negotiators felt that the last bullet item will do more harm than good since the amount of EFC will be double-counted for some students due to the current definition of EFA. Other data elements also require some modification so that students are not inadvertently replacing federal student aid with private student loans.

"We do not believe Congressional intent was to inadvertently allow students to replace federal student aid with private education loans and as such we request a technical change that would identify the amount of aid used to replace EFC and give students a better idea of how much they could qualify for in private student loans," the letter states. The letter asks the data elements to be amended as follows:

• Cost of attendance (COA)
• Expected family contribution (EFC)
• Portion of EFC replaced by other aid, as defined by Title IV regulation
• Estimated financial assistance (EFA), as defined by Title IV regulation
• Total aid (EFA + portion of EFC replaced by other aid)
• Maximum private loan amount (COA - Total aid)

The House has already passed H.R. 1777 to make several needed technical changes to the Higher Education Act, but the Senate is still considering its changes. Draft legislative language was included in the letter for the Senate to consider.

Posted 04/21/09 to www.NASFAA.org. Redistribution to non-NASFAA institutions is prohibited. Please submit Web site questions or comments to Web@NASFAA.org.