Posted Date: January 19, 2018

Subject: Gainful Employment Electronic Announcement #110 - Release of the 2018 GE Disclosure Template

We are announcing the release of the 2018 Gainful Employment (GE) Disclosure Template. Institutions will have until April 6, 2018 to update disclosures for each of their Gainful Employment (GE) programs, using the 2018 GE Disclosure Template.

Although the 2018 GE Disclosure Template is similar in both look and functionality to last year’s template, we have made the following modifications:

• Institutions are no longer required to disclose room and board charges in the template.
• The unsubsidized loan interest rate will be prefilled based on the selected credential level.
• Institutions will not be required to disclose median earnings data in the template.
• Institutions must still disclose whether a program has failed the debt-to-earnings (D/E) rates measure within 30 days of receiving a GE program’s final D/E rates from the Department. Once an institution has indicated that a warning is required on the disclosure template input, the output screen will be prepopulated with the student warnings required under 34 CFR §668.410 of the GE Regulations.
• Institutions may add more than one accreditor job placement rate.
• The format for reporting licensure requirements was changed; and “Foreign Country” was added as an option in the list of States.

Bulk Upload Tool

A bulk upload tool is currently being developed. We expect bulk upload functionality to be available at some point during February 2018.

Student Warnings 

Under the GE regulations, institutions must provide warnings for programs that could become ineligible for Title IV aid based on the next round of final D/E rates. Loss of eligibility results after receiving overall “fail” ratings in any two (2) out of three (3) consecutive award years for which rates are calculated or after receiving a combination of “fail” and “zone” ratings for four (4) consecutive award years for which rates were calculated. Warning requirements are temporarily suspended for programs with an alternate earnings appeal currently under consideration. As a reminder for institutions that notified the Department that an alternative earnings appeal would be submitted for one or more GE programs, the deadline to submit an alternate earnings appeal is February 1, 2018. Following the first year of D/E rates, warnings are required for programs with an overall “fail” rating without a pending earnings appeal. Following the withdrawal or rejection of a program’s appeal, an institution has 30 days to revise its GE Disclosure Template to include the warning.

Availability of the 2018 GE Disclosure Template

The 2018 GE Disclosure Template is available on the following web page:

https://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2009/negreg-summerfall.html

Once the template is completed by the institution, the template application will generate a zip file containing the GE program’s disclosure page, which the institution will host on its GE program’s web page.  Also available on the above web page and from the Help menu on the template website, is a comprehensive GE Disclosure Template Quick Start Guide to assist institutions in using the GE Disclosure Template.

Any web page containing academic, cost, financial aid, or admissions information about a GE program must include the GE Disclosure Template for that program or a prominent, readily accessible, clear, conspicuous, and direct link to the program’s disclosure template.

Distribution of the GE Disclosure Template

On July 5, 2017 we published a notice in the Federal Register announcing that the Department would allow additional time, until July 1, 2018, for institutions to comply with 34 CFR 668.412(d) and (e). These provisions require inclusion of the GE Disclosure Template in all promotional materials, and direct distribution of the disclosure template to prospective students. It is important to note that this additional timeframe is not applicable to student warnings. 

Contact Information

If after reviewing the GE Disclosure Template Quick Start Guide there are any technical questions regarding the GE Disclosure Template, please contact our help desk toll-free at (855) 359-3697 or [email protected].

If there are any policy questions about the gainful employment disclosure requirements that are not answered in the GE Disclosure Template Quick Start Guide or in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section of the GE Information Page, please submit those questions to the GE Questions mailbox at [email protected].

Publication Date: 1/19/2018