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today’s news for Tuesday, December 11, 2018

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ELM Resources. From our family to yours, we send a warm Happy Holidays greeting your way! And, ELM's Season of Thanks continues this month with a celebration of our recent survey results. We are so honored and proud of the trust you place in us each day. Your needs are our focus. Contact us to learn more about how we can help you. Visit www.elmresources.com or contact us at [email protected].

NEWS FROM NASFAA

Making high-performing, low-income high school students aware that they are eligible for four years of free tuition at selective universities through targeted mailings can more than double their application and enrollment rates, according to a new National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working paper.

The Department of Education (ED) this week released a new tool to help borrowers assess their eligibility for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. The tool, which was announced last month at the Federal Student Aid Training Conference in Atlanta, will help inform borrowers of any necessary or suggested actions to take in order to qualify, help them self-assess their eligibility using employment information, and help them decide which form to submit—an Employment Certification Form (ECF) or an application for loan forgiveness. The tool will not, however, assist borrowers in submitting either form. It will instead populate a fully-completed PDF that borrowers can save and have signed to submit on their own later on.

NASFAA joined more than two dozen other higher education organizations in signing onto a letter sent to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), raising concern over the proposed rule on inadmissibility of immigrants and non-immigrants on public charge grounds. The organizations wrote that the proposed change could impact American students with immigrant family members and foreign students, after hearing of some students who are U.S. citizens turning down financial aid offers "because they are concerned that receiving educational assistance may adversely impact their non-U.S. citizen family members’ applications for admission or legal residency." While DHS has not said it will include Title IV aid programs in the scope of programs that could lead to denial of entry or citizenship, the groups asked DHS to explicitly exclude all federal aid programs from the final rule, and to exempt F-1 and J-1 exchange visitors. Those changes, they wrote, "will ensure that U.S. citizen students can avail themselves of critical financial aid to which they are legally entitled and help preserve the United States as the destination of choice for the world’s most talented students and scholars."

NASFAA UPDATES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

NASFAA Announces No Dues Increase for 2019-20

Despite normal cost-of-business expense increases, NASFAA's Financial Affairs Committee (FAC) and Board of Directors are committed to ensuring NASFAA is operating at peak performance while simultaneously keeping dues as low as possible. For the third year in a row, FAC and the Board have announced that institutional membership dues will remain unchanged. The base fee for membership in 2019-20 will be $835 with an FTE multiplier of .091. The price of Value, Value Plus, and Webinar packages will also remain steady. The Policies & Procedures Builder module of NASFAA's Compliance Engine will continue to be included in the Value Plus package; Standard and Value members may add the P&P Builder to their 2019-20 membership for $99 per year, per institution. Membership dues are announced early to give schools sufficient time to plan accordingly.

Webinar Logo

What are the rules for disbursing funds when a student is no longer enrolled? This webinar will examine late disbursements, retroactive disbursements, and post-withdrawal disbursements, the distinctions between each, and the conditions for making the disbursements. Join us for this NASFAA webinar tomorrow, December 12, at 2:00 p.m. ET, as Lissa Powell and David Tolman from NASFAA's Training & Regulatory Assistance team provide you with the information you need to make these determinations. Register now.

NASFAA follows national standards for assessment testing, which is an important part of credentialing and certification. In addition to 17 credentials currently available, NASFAA will launch the Certified Financial Aid Administrator (CFAA) program during 2019. Knowledgeable and experienced financial aid administrators are needed to assist staff in writing, reviewing, editing, evaluating, and revising test questions for the CFAA Knowledge Exam. Work will begin in January of 2019 and continue through June, with additional work as needed after July 1, 2019. Training in item writing and item review will be provided. If interested, please complete the volunteer form by COB Friday, December 14.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

The Department of Education announced two changes to the Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant Program that will begin in 2019: one standardized annual certification date, and a reconsideration process for certain recipients whose grants were converted to Direct Unsubsidized Loans.

This announcement reminds schools of the general disbursement reporting, excess cash, and reconciliation requirements for all Title IV programs.

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