Pell Grant Duration of Eligibility Limitation Carney McCullough

Pell Grant Duration of Eligibility Limitation Carney McCullough & Marie Fitzpatrick U.S. Department of Education

Agenda Limitation on Pell Eligibility Calculating Reduced Awards Liability for Exceeding the 600% LEU Max Timely Reporting Pell Award History Pell LEU Information for Students Pell LEU in COD Pell LEU COD Edits Pell LEU on COD Reports Pell LEU Dispute Guidance Pell LEU Dispute Process 2

Limitation on Pell Eligibility The Consolidated Appropriations Act, P.L. 112-74 was enacted on December 23, 2011. Duration of a student’s Federal Pell Grant eligibility is limited to 12 semesters (or its equivalent) Effective beginning with the 2012-2013 award year Not limited to students who received their first Federal Pell Grant on or after the 2008-2009 award year Includes all Pell Grant/Basic Grant disbursements back to the 1973-1974 award year 3

Limitation on Pell Eligibility How is the 12 semester equivalent determined? Twelve semester equivalency is calculated by adding the annual percentages of a student’s scheduled award that was disbursed to the student The total of the annual percentages is the student’s Pell Grant Lifetime Eligibility Used (LEU) limit When a student reaches 600% LEU, he/she has reached his/her Federal Pell Grant eligibility limit 4

Calculating Reduced Awards How to calculate a student’s Pell Grant eligibility when the student has: LEU of 500% or Less: A student with an LEU of 500% or less is eligible to receive up to 100 percent of the full Scheduled Award for the award year, since the student has at least 100% LEU remaining. LEU of 600% or More: A student whose Pell LEU is 600% or more may not receive additional Pell Grant funds. 5

Calculating Reduced Awards LEU of Greater Than 500% But Less Than 600%: – A student with an LEU of greater than 500% but less than 600% is not eligible to receive a full Scheduled Award, but may receive a partial Pell Grant award of the difference between 600% and the student’s LEU. 6

Calculating Reduced Awards Scenario 1: Student is full-time in a semester program and has 0 EFC and a 5,645 scheduled award Action: Calculate student’s Pell eligibility by subtracting the Pell LEU from the Pell LEU Report from 600.000% Report says 534.255% 600.000% - 534.255% 65.745% 65.745% x 5,645 3,711.30525 ( 3,711.30) First semester award 2,822.50 Second semester award 888.80 or 888.00 (do not round up) 7

Calculating Reduced Awards Scenario 2: Student is full-time in a semester program and has 525 EFC and a 5,095 scheduled award Action: Calculate student’s Pell eligibility by subtracting the Pell LEU from the Pell LEU Report from 600.000% Report lists LEU of 566.425% 600.000% - 566.425% 33.575% 33.575% x 5,095 1,710.64 First payment period 1,710.64 or 1,710 Second payment period 0 8

Calculating Reduced Awards There is no de minimus award amount for purposes of determining a student’s award because of the 600% LEU limitation. Even a student with a very small remaining LEU is eligible to receive the calculated amount of Pell Grant. For example, a student with an EFC of 2550 and an LEU of 599.500% would be eligible for the remaining 0.500% which is 15.475 truncated to 15.47 or, if necessary, rounded down to 15.00. 9

Liability for Exceeding the 600% LEU Max Institutional If the LEU was 600% prior to the 2012-13 award year, no adjustment is necessary. Institution may be liable for the overpayment if it had information at the time of disbursement that indicated that the student would exceed 600% LEU Institution does not report Pell Grant disbursement within the required 15 day timeframe may be liable for any overpayment that results from another institution disbursing Pell Grant funds with incomplete information because of the late reporting. Rounding rules do not apply if the amount disbursed would place the student’s LEU 600.000% 10

Liability for Exceeding the 600% LEU Max Student Student is liable for the Pell Grant overpayment if the institution was compliant with all disbursement and reporting requirements Institution should follow the normal procedures for handling an overpayment: – Contact student and enter into satisfactory repayment arrangements – Refer to the Department for collection 11

Timely Reporting Electronic Announcement posted on August 13, 2012 http:// ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/081312PellGrantLifetimeEligibilityUsed.html Reminds institutions of the importance of reporting Pell Grant disbursements AND adjustments Federal Register posted February 28, 2013 http:// www.ifap.ed.gov/fregisters/FR022813.html Reduced the timeframe for reporting disbursements (or disbursement adjustments) made on or after 4/1/13 for Federal Pell Grant disbursement records to no later than 15 days after making the disbursement or becoming aware of the need to adjust a student's previously reported disbursement. 12

Pell Award History Summer 2012 Gathered all Pell Grant information from 1973-1974 across all Pell legacy systems Loaded the calculated LEU percentage to existing students records in NSLDS COD began returning Pell LEU on common record responses for all ALL Pell recipients, and returned warning edits COD began displaying Pell LEU on the COD Website for ALL Pell recipients Pell LEU History page created to record all historical Pell student data to determine how Pell LEU was calculated. 13

Pell LEU Information for Students CPS For the 2012-2013 award year CPS began reporting Pell LEU information on SARs, using comment codes to alert applicants who are close to or have exceeded 600% LEU For the 2013-2014 award year SAR comments are consistent with the student’s Pell history at the time of the SAR (pre-screening) & from NSLDS postscreening if LEU changes SAR comments will refer to the equivalent of “school year” SAR Codes 345-357 contain new or revised comments See SAR Comment Codes and Text Guide 14

Pell LEU Information for Students NSLDS MyStudentData allows students to download their loan, grant, and aid overpayment history but does not display Pell LEU percentage. To minimize confusion, do not refer students to MyStudentData Download for LEU information. Note: COD is the official system of record for Pell LEU. 15

Pell LEU in COD On the COD website, institutions can also lookup a student’s LEU using: Person Pell Information page Pell LEU History page Within COD batch processing Common Record Response File Edits 16

Pell LEU in COD 17

Pell LEU in COD 18

Pell LEU in COD A COD Pell LEU Summary can be provided by the institution to the student. 19

Pell LEU in COD Pell FinancialAwardYear 2014 /FinancialAwardYear CPSTransactionNumber 01 /CPSTransactionNumber FinancialAwardAmount 5645.00 /FinancialAwardAmount AttendanceCost 15000.00 /AttendanceCost EnrollmentDate 2013-07-03 /EnrollmentDate Response ResponseCode A /ResponseCode YTDDisbursementAmount 1881.66 /YTDDisbursementAmount TotalEligibilityUsed 33.333 /TotalEligibilityUsed ScheduledGrant 5645.00 /ScheduledGrant LifetimeEligibilityUsed 233.333 /LifetimeEligibilityUsed /Response 20

Pell LEU COD Edits Three Pell LEU edits are given, as applicable, with origination and/or disbursement common record response: Edit # Message 177 Warning Lifetime Percentage of Eligibility Used is near the lifetime limit 178 Warning Lifetime Percentage of Eligibility Used has exceeded the lifetime limit 201 Reject/ Correcting Pell LEU exceeds the Pell LEU Limit of 600% Edit 201 is new as of June 2013! 21

Pell LEU on COD Reports Utilize the 2013-2014 Pell LEU Report to identify Pelleligible CPS applicants with LEUs or 450%. includes students who listed the school’s Federal School Code on their 2013-2014 FAFSA Generated weekly in an institution’s SAIG mailbox CSV format so it can be easily imported and sorted COD also provides the Pell LEU on these Pell Grant reports: Pell Grant Multiple Reporting Record (MRR) Pell Grant Reconciliation Report Pell Grant Year to Date File 22

Pell LEU within NSLDS For the 2013-2014 award year NSLDS sends the Pell LEU to CPS for inclusion on the ISIR NSLDS Professional Access website displays Pell Grant Warning Icons to indicate the student is close to, or has met or exceeded the Pell LEU limit. 23

Pell LEU within NSLDS NSLDS also provides reason codes to reflect the Pell LEU limits. Only students who are Pell Grant eligible will be considered for post-screening with the following reason codes: Code Warning E Meets or Exceeds Pell Grant LEU Limit Greater than or equal to 600.000% C Close to Pell Grant LEU Limit Between 500.001% and 599.999% H High Percentage Warning Between 400.000% and 500.000%* N No Problem Less than 399.999% 24 Threshold

Pell LEU from CPS The applicant’s Pell Lifetime Eligibility Used field appears on the ISIR in the format 9999.999%. NSLDS Pell Lifetime Limit Pre-Screening Flags Identify whether an applicant is close to or exceeding his/her total Pell Grant eligibility limit – H High (450% to 500%) – C Close (500% to 600%) – E Meets or Exceeds (600% or greater) 2013-2014 ISIR Guide was updated on 2/21/2013 http://ifap.ed.gov/isirguide/1314ISIRGuideFeb2013Update.html 25

Pell LEU Dispute Guidance Pell Awards Over 600% LEU There is no provision in the law to ‘disregard’ Pell Grant in the calculation of a student’s LEU in a case of fraud or a Closed School Discharge as there is in the discharging of loans Compliance will be monitored and added to audit and program review procedures The new COD reject edit 201 was added to prevent schools from disbursing Pell Grant to a student with an LEU 600%. 26

Pell LEU Dispute Guidance DCL 13-14 posted to ifap on May 16, 2013 http://www.ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/GEN1314.html Responsibility of the institution to advocate for the student in resolving Pell data discrepancy If the amount disputed would not, if corrected, provide additional Pell Eligibility, the issue should not be escalated to the Department. Current and prior schools need to work together to document the student’s enrollment and receipt of Pell grant funds for the disputed award year. 27

Pell LEU Dispute Process If a student or institution believes the underlying Pell data in COD is inaccurate, the dispute process was outlined in the Electronic Announcement posted to ifap on June 27, 2013. http://ifap.ed.gov/eannouncements/062713PellGrantLEUDisputeEscalationProcess.html What the Student needs to do: Needs to have filed a FAFSA Needs to work with their current institution Needs to supply all documentation requested 28

Pell LEU Dispute Process Non-Dispute Issues- Admitted Pell Reporting Errors 2007-08 through 2013-2014 are active in COD and should be corrected by schools, are not considered disputes, and do not need to be escalated to the Department Prior to 2007-2008 cannot be corrected by schools directly. – Contact the COD School Relations Center – Submit documentation – The Department will make the corrections based on documentation 29

Pell LEU Dispute Process What the current institution needs to do: Work as advocate for the student by facilitating the dispute process Research the student history in institutional records, COD, and NSLDS Contact former school(s) and work together to document the enrollment and disbursed funds for the disputed period of time. Determine if there is cause for a dispute, and escalate if appropriate Inform the former school(s) of the dispute case number assigned 30

Pell LEU Dispute Process What the former institution needs to do: Cooperate with current school request for information regarding the alleged discrepancy. Research the student history in institutional records, COD, and NSLDS Use the case number, obtained from the current school, and include it on all requested documentation submitted to the Department 31

Pell LEU Dispute Process Escalation: If it is determined that the case should be escalated to the Department, the Current school contacts the COD School Relation Center and obtains a dispute case number. – 800-474-7268 or [email protected] The COD School Relations Center will advise what documentation is required. All documentation is submitted electronically and should include the dispute case number 32

Pell LEU Dispute Process What the Department will do: Department staff will review all supporting documentation of the case, and render a decision Based on the decision, the Department will provide the school(s) with: ̶ EITHER An approval notification with the amount of the Pell Grant LEU adjustment. The school may then disburse Pell Grant funds. ̶ OR A denial notification. The school will not be able to disburse additional Pell Grant funds. ̶ AND A notification that can be given to the student documenting the Department’s decision. 33

Pell LEU Dispute Process COD System changes in June 2013 accommodate Pell LEU adjustments. If the dispute escalation results in an adjustment by the Department, the new adjustments section of the Pell LEU History Screen will reflect this, and the LEU will update accordingly. The updated LEU will flow to NSLDS when the current school submits a disbursement(s) for the student. 34

Pell LEU Dispute Process Updated Pell LEU History Screen with Adjustments 35

Pell LEU Dispute Process Adjustments will also be listed on the Pell LEU History Summary 36

Contact Information We appreciate your feedback and comments. We can be reached at: Carney McCullough Phone: 202-502-7639 E-mail: [email protected] Marie Fitzpatrick Phone: 312-730-1549 E-mail: [email protected] 37

QUESTIONS? 38