The following update to our June 29, 2017, post provides information on our plans to help ensure your school’s compliance with the Department of Education’s April 20, 2017, announcement regarding modifications to summer enrollment reporting.
Reporting “Ws” During Summer
The Clearinghouse has approached ED’s guidance on summer reporting conservatively to help ensure your school’s compliance with both ED’s summer reporting requirements and the NSLDS Enrollment Reporting Guide’s requirement to report students via the NSLDS Reporting Roster/SSCR process “…no less frequently than every two months.” Our conservative approach also helps ensure data integrity by allowing for the release of a student’s true last date of attendance (LDA) to NSLDS, if a student who withdraws from all courses does not return for the next regularly scheduled term. As we mentioned in our June 29 post, summer less than half-time statuses are being suppressed by the Clearinghouse on your school’s behalf, as a result of our May 15, 2017, enhancement. Our update, highlighted below, is surrounding the reporting of withdrawal statuses.
To accommodate ED’s new summer guidance requirements, we recommend you report withdrawals to the Clearinghouse in your summer enrollment/non-required term files, if you are certain the student will not return for the next regularly scheduled fall term. This enrollment reporting should be consistent with and reflect your school’s policies and procedures surrounding these types of withdrawals. The Clearinghouse will subsequently report the withdrawal to NSLDS via the standard Enrollment Reporting Roster/SSCR process, providing the withdrawal’s status effective date as reported by your institution to the Clearinghouse.
Note: The withdrawal record and summer effective date provided by your school will be sent to NSLDS via the standard SSCR process and indicate that the student has separated from your school. However, if the student does return for the next regularly scheduled term, their enrollment will place the student back into deferment and reset the student’s grace period. This conservative approach helps maintain data integrity by supporting ED’s requirement to report the student’s summer LDA if the student does not return for the fall semester.
Historically, the Clearinghouse has reported withdrawals during summer terms and will continue to do so. We are happy to work with you on including withdrawals in your summer enrollment files. Please contact SchoolOp@studentclearinghouse.org for assistance with your enrollment reporting file questions.
The second phase of our enhancement will be implemented in the coming weeks and includes:
- Suppressing “L” (Less Than Half-Time) enrolled students reported in a non-required term from being added to your school’s SSCR roster.
- Sending previous non-standard greater than “L” (Less Than Half-Time) enrollment in lieu of Less Than Half-Time enrollment during a non-standard summer term
As we receive additional information and clarification from FSA/NSLDS, we will post updates on our Compliance Central blog.