By Hugh T. Ferguson, NASFAA Managing Editor
Attendees at the 2024 NASFAA National Conference were able to hear from Department of Education (ED) officials on Monday, who provided the latest information on a number of upcoming regulations and statutory changes that will impact school reporting requirements, and provided clarity on the usage of student data.
In terms of upcoming rules and regulations developed during a negotiated rulemaking session, the department provided attendees with an overview of gainful employment (GE) and financial value transparency (FVT) regulations being implemented on July 1, 2024.
The presentation had an emphasis on the new reporting requirements for institutions and detailed how schools can prepare for new metrics that will be used to demonstrate the financial value of their educational programs.
On Monday, NASFAA submitted to ED its response to the department’s second request for comments on its GE and FVT institutional reporting requirements. NASFAA focused largely on the need to further delay these requirements — to July 2025 — in light of the delays and errors with this year’s FAFSA and the fact that ED has not published the necessary documentation to allow members to prepare for reporting this October, and also includes several technical comments and suggestions.
The GE and FVT presentation then walked attendees through varying reporting deadlines and helped detail how the two components, debt-to-earnings (D/E) rates and an earnings premium (EP), will be used to measure programs’ financial value.
In another session, officials examined recent statutory changes made to the access, use, and disclosure of FAFSA data and federal tax information (FTI) use under the FUTURE Act and FAFSA Simplification Act.
Michael Ruggless, program specialist at Federal Student Aid (FSA), gave an overview of statutory provisions and changes from former Section 483(a)(3)(E) of the HEA, and highlighted the restriction of FAFSA data usage for the application, award, and administration of aid programs. He also walked through how new statutory provisions intersect with FERPA requirements.
The discussion also went through a thorough Q&A section, with FAQs outlined in the presentation. Ruggless also indicated that additional disclosures and uses of FAFSA data would be made available in forthcoming guidance.
Publication Date: 6/17/2024
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