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Higher education stakeholders concluded the first of three sessions of negotiated rulemaking, or “neg reg,” Wednesday to consider changes to the federal regulations on accreditation and other issues, debating a host of topics related to limiting the scope of regional accreditors, changing the criteria for accreditors to receive federal recognition, and strengthening the relationship between accrediting agencies and employers, among other issues.

Lifting the ban on a provision that blocks incarcerated individuals from receiving a federal Pell Grant could not only have a significant impact on those currently in state or federal prison, but could also save state governments millions of dollars each year, and expand the pool of potential employees for businesses looking for skilled workers, according to a new report.

NASFAA's Advocacy Pipeline is an ongoing advocacy effort designed to bring NASFAA members to D.C. to share on-the-ground perspectives with policymakers on Capitol Hill. Throughout the year, small groups of NASFAA members come to Washington to participate in direct advocacy with congressional offices. If you are interested in participating, please complete this form. For more information about NASFAA's congressional outreach efforts, check out the NASFAA Advocacy page.

NASFAA staff and elected officers are busy visiting state and regional associations in the coming months! In February, 2017-18 National Chair Billie Jo Hamilton will speak at the 2019 CCCU Multi-Academic Conference in Florida. This March, NASFAA President Justin Draeger will speak at ILASFAA's 50th Annual Conference in Springfield, IL, and NASFAA's Mandy Sponholtz will speak at the at NACUBO SFS Conference in New Orleans. National Chair Lori Vedder will head to Iowa to speak at the IASFAA Conference in April, and NASFAA's Karen McCarthy will speak at the 2019 OASFAA Conference in Tulsa, OK at the end of April. Head to the Events Calendar to see what's on tap for the rest of October and the coming few months.

In July 2012, the Department of Education (ED) released the Financial Aid Shopping Sheet (now the College Financing Plan) format and asked institutions to voluntarily commit to supplying financial aid information to students in a way that could be better understood and compared. However, despite the commitment to using the standardized format, ED has heard a number of concerns about elements of the template that could be improved to make it more user friendly to institutions and students. ED has also reviewed the NASFAA report No Clear Winner: Consumer Testing of Financial Aid Award Letters as well as comments that have been submitted to [email protected]. As a result, ED has developed a revised format that includes the following changes.

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