SEARCH TODAY'S NEWS ARCHIVES

Next Steps EDU Partnership Has Assisted Over 800 Students To Date

By Charlotte Etier, Senior Research Analyst

As previously shared in Today’s News, NASFAA, the Western Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (WASFAA), the California Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (CASFAA), and Beyond 12 began a partnership at the start of June 2015 to connect students displaced by the closure of Corinthian Colleges – and those who felt they were victims of fraud regardless of whether or not their campus closed – with volunteers who are knowledgeable about higher education, academic planning and financial aid.

At the onset of this partnership the U.S. Department of Education (ED) provided guidance on how eligible students could apply for closed-school federal loan discharge and extended the general 120-day window to June 20, 2014, due to the extenuating circumstances of this situation. Students who believe they were victims of fraud, regardless of whether their school closed, are allowed to seek loan forgiveness under the “defense to repayment” or “borrower’s defense” law. While ED has yet to issue specific guidance for these students, with the exception of Heald College, it has appointed a Special Master, Joseph A. Smith, who will inform the debt relief process for former Corinthian Colleges students.

As mentioned by Lynn Mahaffie of ED’s Office of Federal Student Aid during the closing session at NASFAA’S National Conference, until the for-profit college chain closed in April 2015, ED had only received a handful of requests for “defense to repayment,” and handled them piecemeal. She said ED has already received thousands of requests, and is expecting tens of thousands in total. “We are trying very hard to group students together into categories and making decisions based on the category,” she said. “We certainly hope we never find ourselves in a situation like this again.”

For their part, more than 22 financial aid administrators from CASFAA have assisted over 450 student tickets related to financial aid questions as of late July. Overall this partnership has assisted more than 800 students on issues ranging from transcript requests, transfer services, academic counseling, and financial aid with the help of other organizations such as California State University (CSU) Fullerton. Since there is no current guidance on how to assist students who feel they were victims of fraud outside of Heald College, the partnership is flagging those inquiries for follow-up once more details are released. This initiative is scheduled to continue until the end of September, and there are still ways your office can help.

  • If you live in California, Arizona, New York, Hawaii or Oregon:
    • Refer students who come to your office to NextStepsEdu.org so they may complete a “help ticket” and obtain more information specific to their situation prior to making any decisions.
    • Share this initiative and these resources with other offices on your campus, such as Admissions/Transfer Services or Academic Advising, so they may encourage students who come to their office to complete a “help ticket” and obtain more information specific to their situation prior to making any decisions.
  • Financial aid offices in other states: Share the details of this initiative on your social media pages to help us get the word out and reach as many of the displaced students as possible.
  • State and regional associations: Share this initiative on your social media pages and with the financial aid offices in your area.

 

Publication Date: 7/28/2015


You must be logged in to comment on this page.

Comments Disclaimer: NASFAA welcomes and encourages readers to comment and engage in respectful conversation about the content posted here. We value thoughtful, polite, and concise comments that reflect a variety of views. Comments are not moderated by NASFAA but are reviewed periodically by staff. Users should not expect real-time responses from NASFAA. To learn more, please view NASFAA’s complete Comments Policy.

Related Content

House Oversight Subcommittee Criticizes For-Profit Oversight Under DeVos

MORE | ADD TO FAVORITES

House Subcommittee Hearing Puts Spotlight on For-Profit Colleges

MORE | ADD TO FAVORITES

VIEW ALL
View Desktop Version