We have important news to share on a change that has been made by the Department of Education (ED) regarding an issue that was negatively impacting the Enrollment Statistics score that the NSLDS calculates for institutions. (NSLDS, or the National Student Loan Data System, is the ED’s central database that keeps track of how much federal student loan debt a student has.)
Why Were Transfer Monitoring and Financial Aid Queries a Problem?
Financial Aid History and Transfer Student Monitoring reports were causing students to be added to the NSLDS’s Enrollment Roster for an institution. Frequently, there was no program-level information associated with these students because they were last reported prior to the 150 percent reporting regulations (when program-level data was not required) or they had not yet enrolled. This resulted in a lower percentage of students with program information being reported and, ultimately, a lower Enrollment Statistics score being assigned by NSLDS for the institution.
New ED Guidance Expected Soon from Federal Student Aid (FSA)
Through our ongoing collaboration with Department of Education (ED), the Clearinghouse was recently advised that ED will no longer use Transfer Student Monitoring or Financial Aid History queries to add students to rosters. The immediate result will be to prevent “pre-150 percent” students and students that have not enrolled from impacting an institution’s certified with program-level score. If your institution’s score has been negatively impacted by this issue in the past, it should not be an issue moving forward.
Federal Student Aid (FSA), the Department of Education office that manages the student financial assistance programs authorized under Title IV, has advised us that they will publish guidance on this change in the near future.
Updates on this topic will continue to be posted. So stay tuned to Compliance Central and the Compliance Central blog for more information as we learn additional details!
We also invite you to “Join the Journey” as the Clearinghouse gets a head start on our 25th anniversary as your trusted partner in 2018 with an academic year filled with new events, services, and more.
Resources
- Clearinghouse Academy: Learning resources and events
- Compliance Central: Updates, tips and resources to help you stay in compliance