On January 31, President Biden announced the national emergency declarations related to the COVID-19 pandemic will be ending on May 11, 2023, and that means the flexibilities and exceptions in the Title IV financial aid programs will be ending as well. There’s not much time to determine which of your office procedures are impacted and when. The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) has created a resource page to aid with the transition, and we’ve summarized some of the program changes below.
What: Transfer of up to 100% of federal work-study funds to FSEOG and FSEOG Emergency Grant authority.
When: Through the end of the payment period that includes the last day of the national emergency.
What: Waiver of federal work-study community service requirement.
When: The end of the award year that begins after the date on which the national emergency is rescinded.
What: Verification rules including flexibilities for V4/V5 documentation,; signature requirements; and duplicate IRS forms.
When: Through the end of the payment period that begins after the national emergency is rescinded.
What: Attempted credits not completed as a result of COVID– related circumstances allowed to be excluded from the quantitative component of SAP.
When: Assessments made through the end of the payment period that includes the last day the national emergency is in effect.
What: Academic calendar flexibilities including allowing overlapping and short terms to remain standard and allowing standard semesters or trimesters to contain as few as 13 weeks of instruction time.
When: Through the end of the academic year that includes the last day the national emergency is in effect.
These are certainly not the only flexibilities that will expire along with the National COVID emergency and to make it even more challenging, note that the timeframes involved are not consistent. It will take some careful planning to ensure your office procedures are updated and put into effect in a timely way.
We also expect additional guidance to be provided by Federal Student Aid, so keep an eye out for those communications probably in the form of electronic announcements. You can also check in with NASFAA for additional information and, of course, follow the Higher Education Assistance Group Blog.
If you need assistance with navigating through and implementing these changes, contact our experts at HEAG……