FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Hugh Ferguson
Managing Editor, NASFAA
[email protected]
WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER 13, 2024 — Today, the U.S. Department of Education announced an additional three-and-a-half month extension for its gainful employment (GE) and financial value transparency (FVT) regulation reporting requirement, from October 1, 2024 to January 15, 2025. The Department of Education's decision to delay the deadline provides some relief for overburdened financial aid offices. Still, significant challenges remain for institutions, particularly related to the key Department-generated reports that schools rely on to submit their own data.
NASFAA has been calling on the Department of Education to delay these reporting requirements since December 2023, and had asked for a delay until July 2025 to help ease the heavy burden that financial aid offices are facing with the FAFSA rollout. On September 10, a bipartisan group of senators sent a letter to the Department also calling for a delay in these institutional reporting deadlines until July 2025.
“After months of chaos and last-minute disappointments, financial aid administrators and schools have frequently had their pleas for relief go unheard, so we are glad that in this instance the Department has answered our repeated calls for help. In the near term, this postponement will allow financial aid administrators to focus on what matters this fall: serving students.
We acknowledge the Department's stated goal to produce the first complete set of results under FVT/GE in time to inform college decisions for the next award year. While NASFAA supports students making well-informed enrollment decisions, rushing the process will lead to inaccurate and incomplete information. ED’s top priority should be helping students and institutions navigate the existing FAFSA crisis.
While any delay certainly helps, as colleges grapple with ongoing application glitches caused by federal errors, extending the reporting timeline to July, as NASFAA and a bipartisan group of 20 lawmakers have requested, would offer much-needed support.
Further, ED still has not provided corrected Completers Lists and FVT/GE Reports and has urged institutions to “pause” their reviews and use of these reports. Without knowing when the Department of Education will correct these report errors, it is impossible to assess schools' ability to meet the new January 15 deadline.
Extending the GE/FVT deadline to July 2025 would offer financial aid professionals greater certainty and additional relief during the planned “beta launch” and delayed rollout of the 2025-26 FAFSA.”
About NASFAA
The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) is a nonprofit membership organization that represents more than 29,000 financial aid professionals at approximately 3,000 colleges, universities, and career schools across the country. NASFAA member institutions serve nine out of every 10 undergraduates in the U.S. Based in Washington, D.C., NASFAA is the only national association with a primary focus on student aid legislation, regulatory analysis, and training for financial aid administrators.
Publication Date: 9/13/2024