Home | Federal Student Aid - Financial Aid Toolkit



PSC-ED-FSA-TISD

Moderator: Christal Simms

September 6, 2017

12:30 pm CT

Coordinator: Welcome and thank you for standing by. At this time, all participants’ lines are in listen-only mode. This conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this point. Now, I will hand the call over to Ms. Maisha Challenger. You may now begin.

Maisha Challenger: Good afternoon, everyone. We want to welcome you to the 2017 Federal Update Federal Student Aid Training Webinar. We are so excited you are all able to join us today. My name is Maisha Challenger, and I’m an Awareness and Outreach Specialist here at Federal Student Aid.

Today, we want to share with you some great resources FSA has to offer. We all know that you all, counselors and mentors, college access professionals, are doing a lot of legwork on the ground. You’re working with families to increase awareness about financial aid in the FAFSA. The 2018-2019 FAFSA is coming out on October 1, which is right around the corner. So this webinar is right on time to provide you with some resources and tools for the upcoming year. Let’s talk a little bit about the webinar agenda.

What I want to share with you today is we’re going to talk about some Federal Student Aid training materials. We’ve modified some existing information to assist you with training and conducting outreach in your presentation. We’re also going to have a federal update.

Craig Munier has graciously set in the shoes of Mr. Jeff Baker to provide a federal update for you all today. We’re also going to answer your questions. During the webinar, we have a Q&A chat box to where you should, please, put down your questions. And our colleagues will respond to your questions throughout the webinar. And then, we will also answer, Craig and myself answer questions at the duration of the webinar.

Materials and resources for today’s webinar will be presented by representatives from Federal Student Aid. As I mentioned, my name is Maisha Challenger, I am an Awareness and Outreach Specialist; Craig Munier who is the Assistant Director for Policy Liaison and Implementation here at FSA.

So I mentioned to you all that we’re going to provide some Federal Student Aid training. What is Federal Student Aid training? Some of you all may recall there is a program that we often called NT4CM which was the National Training for Counselors and Mentors.

NT4CM has been modified and replaced by Federal Student Aid Training Materials. The Federal Student Aid Training Materials will provide a variety of different resources that are free in the form of PowerPoint presentations and resource documents that counselors and mentors can use to provide important, relevant and up-to-date information about the financial aid process.

You can access these free resources online which can be used to conduct outreach to students and family. These materials will also provide updates on education policy and Web site content; social media content that will provide more in-depth info about a particular topic.

Here is a list of some of the topics that will be offered for Federal Student Aid Training Materials. We’re going to talk about overview of financial aid program, applying for federal financial aid, student dependency status, after the fact though what happens next, counseling undocumented students, financial literacy, how to create a budget, what you need to look for when you’re planning for college, and then we also will offer additional resource documents.

These additional documents will include a wide range of information where, for example, you will look at cost of attendance comparison, a financial aid application checklist, a sample scholarship inquiry letter, Federal Student Aid program summaries, these are all materials and resources that you counselors and mentors and college access professionals can use to officiate in your already existing training. And it’s really important, again, to just have existing or additional resources. These training materials, again, will be provided to you all online.

So, I’m sure you’re wondering. This sounds like really great information. Where can we find this information? These same materials will be available on the Financial Aid Toolkit Web site. I’m hoping most of you on this call are familiar with the Financial Aid Toolkit Web site. If not, the URL is financialaidtoolkit.. That is where you can go to find the training materials, as well as the wide variety of information and resources for counselors and mentors.

I’m going to do a quick overview of the toolkit. But just as an FYI, the materials that we just mentioned will not be available until the end of September 2017.

I also just want to reiterate, actually, just bring up that the PowerPoint presentation for today’s webinar is located in the upper left-hand corner in the webinar. So if you would like to download this presentation, if you look over in the top left-hand corner under Files, you can do that, okay?

So I want to talk briefly about the Financial Aid Toolkit, which is a Web site specifically designed for you as school counselor or college access mentor. It consolidates FSA resources into a searchable online database. It’s integrated by organizations and individuals who support and counsel students and families to make financial preparations for postsecondary education.

There are four various pages on the Financial Aid Toolkit. We have a page dedicated to Learning about Financial Aid, Conducting Outreach and Getting Training. One of the great resources that we provide on the Financial Aid Toolkit site under Learning about Financial Aid is our FAFSA updates. And there is actually a FAFSA demo site where, for those individuals who want to practice filling out the FAFSA before the ‘18-‘19 FAFSA comes out, you can do that.

The 2017-18 demo is available now. But for the new 2018-19 demo site, that will be available to Sunday before the FAFSA comes out on October 1. So Sunday, September 24, you can access the 2018-19 FAFSA demo site to get to practice and engage the different questions that you may have to answer to help your student fill out the FAFSA.

So the other thing that I wanted to mention is one of the pages that we offer is our Searching Tool and Resources. And that page offers resources in a variety of different forms; so PowerPoint presentations; infographics; presentations on loan programs; grant programs; webinars. We offer a lot of various webinars here at Federal Student Aid.

There is a dropdown menu where you can look for resource type, audience type and topics. All this information you can search for on the Financial Aid Toolkit. And there’s just an amazing amount of resources that you ought to use to start this upcoming school year.

I mentioned webinars. So here at Federal Student Aid, we offer a lot of different topics on the financial aid process, from the FAFSA loan repayment, student dependency status, FSA ID and FAFSA demo.

In September, we have two webinars that we’re offering. One is learn how to use the Financial Aid Toolkit like we just talked about to help students prepare for college. That will be Tuesday, September 26, from 3 to 4 pm, Eastern Time. And then, on September 28, learn how to use to prepare for college and career schools. So the September 28 webinar is for parents and students. And the September 26 webinar is for college access professionals.

We’ve actually created a link under Web Link in this webinar to register for the webinars because you must register in order to attend, on the bottom left-hand side under - if you click on FSA September Webinars, you should be able to register; so again, another resource that Federal Student Aid offers.

At this time, I would like to turn over the webinar to Mr. Craig Munier who is the Assistant Director for Policy Liaison and Implementation here at FSA.

Craig Munier: Great. Thank you, Maisha, and good afternoon to everybody. I appreciate being with you this afternoon. Well let’s just get started right away. One of the things that we want to talk about is the fiscal year 2017 consolidated appropriations and the FY 2018 budget request.

The Pell Grant request for - is a constant $22 billion. That’s a level funding with the fiscal year 2016, the funding. The Appropriations Act also rescinded $1.31 billion in Pell surplus. That’s not a number that means a lot to anyone. It’s money that would have remained in the fund that was not spoken for or applied for, claimed by eligible students. And that money has been swept up and is no longer in the fund.

Though it reinstates - the exciting news would be, in Consolidated Appropriations Act, of course, is that we reinstated the year-round Pell, beginning with the 2017-2018 award year. And I’m going to talk about that in just a little bit. And then, finally, for more information about year-round Pell, I want to refer you to the June 19, 2017 Dear Colleague letter that’s GEN-17-06. Again, we’re going to cover that in a little more in depth in a minute.

On notice of intent to negotiate, we did submit a notice of intent to negotiate the following topics, and that intent was published on June 15, 2017 and included the topics that you see displayed on your screen, borrower defense, gainful employment and the authority of guarantee agencies to charge collection costs to defaulted FF, Federal Family Educational Loan borrowers who enter into repayment agreements.

Likewise, the Federal Register noticed that we published August 30, 2017. And it looks like that slipped off the slide, but that’s August 30, 2017. It establishes two negotiating committees. For those who negotiate rule-making sessions, we wanted to call those to your attention.

Committee 1 is going to concern itself with borrower defense and financial responsibility issues while Committee 2 will focus on gainful employment. What we wanted to call to your attention is the nominations to serve as negotiators in that process are due for both committees on or before September 29, 2017.

We would encourage the community to submit names of possible individuals that would be interested in serving as negotiators and negotiate rule-making for those topics. And if you’re interested, see the Federal Register notice. You’d see the details there before you on the screen for more information about how to go about nominating yourself or others to be negotiators.

The 2017-18 Pell Grant payment schedules, those were published on October 18, 2016. As you know, the maximum Pell Grant increased by $105 for the 2017-18 award year to a maximum award of $5920. And the minimum award also increased slightly to $595. And you see before you that the maximum eligible expected family contribution was determined to be $5328. Again, you can refer to the Dear Colleague letter there before you for the details on the payment schedules.

The exciting news is about year-round Pell. And we wanted to talk a little bit about that, the Dear Colleague letter that we issued. I think we have a slide that’s in error. Ignore the slide - the Dear Colleague letter reference is GEN-17-06. The reference in the middle of the screen 17-07 is an error. Just ignore that.

But the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017 now allows otherwise an eligible student to receive Pell Grant funds for up to 150% of what would otherwise be the student’s Pell Grant scheduled award for an award year. This is effective with the 2017-18 award year. And we want to make sure that people understand it does not apply to the summer of 2017 which is virtually over now. I think if that summer session was treated as a trailer for the 2016-17 eligibility, we’ll talk about that here in just a minute.

So students that must otherwise be eligible to receive Pell Grant funds, of course, for the payment period, one of the things that’s unique about year-round Pell provisions is that for the payment period in which a student is eligible to receive any additional Pell over the 100% scheduled award, for that payment period, the student must be enrolled at least half-time. So unlike the first 100% that does accommodate less than half-time enrollment for the year-round Pell provision, the student must be at least half-time in that payment period.

Of course, the additional Pell Grant that a student would receive under the year-round Pell provision does count as part of the student’s overall 600% maximum Pell Lifetime Eligibility Used or LEUs.

I want to go back just briefly and talk about summer a little bit in case there’s some confusion. So with the year-round Pell, because of when this came into effect, there was some confusion a little bit about summer terms. And we talk about crossover periods. And a crossover period, just as a reminder, is any payment period that crosses over the dates of June 30 and July 1.

We have long issued guidance that institutions in that instance are required to assign a crossover period to one award year or the other. It’s up to the institution which. Schools sometimes commonly refer to these summer terms as trailers or headers.

So for - to receive a year-round Pell, if a school had defined their summer session as a header and began, it’s theoretically possible that a student could use their first 100% scheduled Pell Grant awards in the summer and fall, and then the year-round Pell provision could kick in as early as the spring of 2018. If an institution on the other hand uses crossover period and assigns summer as a trailer, then the year-round Pell provision probably doesn’t come into play for that institution until next summer term. So if we can talk about that a little more if there’s questions about that a little later.

The homeless youth, we issued a Dear Colleague letter, GEN-15-16 back on July 29, 2015 to clarify institutional and applicants’ responsibilities and roles related to the dependency determinations for unaccompanied homeless youth. Applicants on the FAFSA who are 22 or 23 years old do qualify for the homeless youth determination. But the current 2017-18 FAFSA defines youth as 21 and younger.

For 2018-19 FAFSA that will come up on October 1 of this year, in just a few weeks, the issue is the applicants who are 22 or 23, who indicate on the FAFSA that they are homeless, always had to rely on the financial aid administrator to set a homeless youth override flag in order for the applicant to complete the FAFSA as an independent student or independent of their parents.

Our resolution is that all homeless youth will be presented. If they’ve indicated they are homeless youth regardless of age, they will be presented the questions 56, 57 and 58, and regardless of age, who’ve indicated they’re homeless.

Financial administrators are going to be - are required then to make a homeless youth determination when requested by the applicant. And we want to be sure that financial administrators understand that they must make a determination if an applicant is homeless but not make a judgment as to the circumstances as to why the applicant is homeless. I want to emphasize that. There are additional resources for making the homeless youth determinations. And you’d see the hyperlink there on the screen in front of you.

Then, on June 10, 2016, Federal Student Aid and the Homeless Youth Fact Sheet was published. These are additional resources for homeless students navigating the Federal Student Aid application process. We have also made available the Foster Care Transition Toolkit that’s available on the US Department of Education - on the Federal Student Aid Web site. And we would refer you to those to help you who are transitioning out of foster care and provide resources for you who may become homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

The important thing here is that FAAs are required to make a homeless youth determination, but that determination is not required to be affirmative. In other words, unlike the Professional Judgment option which is optional by the financial administrator, if an applicant identifies himself as a homeless youth individual, the FAA is required now to make a determination as to whether or not that individual qualifies under the homeless youth determination.

Early FAFSA, so you are all well aware by now, I’m sure. Early FAFSA began with the 2017-18 FAFSA that we brought up last October 1. It seems like only yesterday. But the Early FAFSA is now the new normal. And so, you will rarely hear us talk about Early FAFSA any longer. That was a one-year phenomenon. And from this time forward, of course, the FAFSA will be available on October 1, each year for the school year that begins with a - financial aid award year that begins the following July 1.

One of the unusual anomalies with the transition to Early FAFSA, of course, is that we had two successive FAFSA years 2016-17 and 2017-18 that relied on the same tax years; in other words, 2015 calendar or tax year as the income for determining eligibility. That tax year, however, as you would expect, is going to roll forward, continuing with the ‘18-‘19 FAFSA that comes out on October 1, 2017. That FAFSA will be using prior-prior year income as well. But that will be the 2016 tax or calendar year for the income in determining the eligibility.

I don’t think this is any surprise. This slide was one that we had developed a year ago. We’ll just show it to you again. The primary purpose of this slide is to make everyone aware that using the same tax year for two successive FAFSA years was an anomaly. And that from this day forward, if you look at the last line on this chart, the 2018-19 FAFSA for people planning to attend college from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019 will rely on the 2016 tax year information, and then each successive year after that.

The IRS Data Retrieval Tool, this has been a subject of some news in recent months. As you know, beginning on March 3, 2017, the IRS Data Retrieval Tool was unavailable for use on the FAFSA on the Web and for the income-driven repayment process regarding student loans. The FAFSA and the income-determined repayment applicants can complete their application manually and putting the relevant IRS and tax information. I think that’s well understood.

On May 3, 2017, an electronic announcement was posted to indicate that the IRS and the Federal Student Aid had agreed upon a data retrieval process that would allow us to reinstate use of the IRS Data Retrieval Tool beginning with the 2018-2019 FAFSA process that begins October 1. That solution includes the encryption of the IRS data that’s passed from the IRS to the FAFSA, as well as the masking of that data on both the IRS and the FAFSA or income-determined repayment Web pages.

So the revised process was - for the income-determined repayments, we brought that back up on June 2, 2017. It seems to be operating fairly well. We haven’t had a lot of problems with it. The revised data retrieval process for FAFSA on the Web will begin, as I said, October 1, 2017 for the 2018-19 FAFSA. However, the Data Retrieval Tool is not going to be available for the remainder of the 2017-18 FAFSA year. So, for the remainder of the current FAFSA year, applicants will rely on inputting their own income and tax information.

And because the data from the Data Retrieval Tool cannot be displayed on the IRS Web page or on the FAFSA Web page, and it will also not display on the Student Aid Report that the applicant receives, the institution or state grant agencies’ Institutional Student Information Record will have the IRS information. However, that’s required us to have some special provisions in the FAFSA process that will allow applicants to make some changes but not all of the changes that they’re accustomed to having made to income and tax data in the past.

One of the provisions would be to allow the applicant to correctly input income earned from work. We will get information from the IRS that we, again, can’t display. But we will ask the applicant, to parse out to my words, the income earned from work, from - they and their spouse in the case of a married independent student or for their parents in the case of two parents filing a joint tax return.

They will also have an opportunity to adjust any allowance for individual retirement accounts and pension distribution rollovers as they’ve had in the past. However, unlike the past, we won’t be able to display what that IRA or pension amount is. We’ll just be able to ask, “Was any of this attributable? If you had an IRA or pension rollover, what was the amount that was rolled over?” And we’ll do the math behind the scenes.

Institutions will be responsible for submitting all required corrections and updates to income and tax information for applicants that use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool. And if they have secure access, the schools would be able to share that information with the students or spouse.

We’ve recently, and this is very new guidance, however, just yesterday, we issued an electronic announcement, September 5, the subject of which is a reminder to institutions of higher education and state agencies regarding the privacy and security of data from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

Basically, the bottom line here is that we are asking schools, reminding schools and state agencies of the longstanding guidance that information associated with determining the eligibility for financial aid that appears on the FAFSA is, as you know, a very confidential private information and it must be treated as such.

And this includes having adequate authentication of an applicant’s identity before disclosing any confidential information. So one of the ways that we have suggested that that can be done is a FAFSA applicant appearing in person, and presenting an unexpired or a valid government-issued photo identification would be one secure way of doing that to ensuring that you are sharing, if you must, information with the applicant.

We recognize that there are schools that have other - may have other more sophisticated ways of assuring identity authentication. And we’re just asking those schools that before they rely on those other ways that they review those processes and assure themselves that they are taking adequate precautions to share information that the information they’re sharing is being shared with the person who represents themselves as that person. So you can read that for yourself, September 5. It just came out yesterday. Oops, sorry.

Turning our attention to the Perkins Loan, I think everyone is well aware that the Perkins Loan Extension Act of 2015 that we described in Dear Colleague Letter 16-05 has - oops, sorry - that the authority to make new loans to graduate students and in last September, and the authority to make new loans to undergraduate students ends with September 30, 2017.

However, in that Dear Colleague letter, we also make it clear that if you had made a direct Perkins Loan disbursement prior to September 30, 2017, that you may make any subsequent disbursements of that current loan for the award year through June 30, 2018 but not beyond.

I keep hitting the wrong button, I think, maybe - sorry. And I think that is the end of the update that I have for you today. But I’m sure there are some questions. And so, Maisha, I’m going to turn it back to you.

Maisha Challenger: Thanks, Craig, so much. So just to kind of recap, we had talked a little bit about some of the Federal Student Aid Training Materials that we are hoping that you all that are participating today will utilize for the upcoming school year. As we said, the ‘18-‘19 FAFSA will become available on October 1. There’s a demo site that you all can use which will be available to Sunday before October 1, which is a Sunday, September 24.

Craig did an amazing job just kind of sharing with you all a lot of the updates, as he relates to homeless youth, Perkins, and I’m sure a lot of you have questions regarding the IRS Data Retrieval Tool.

So what we want to try to do now, and I want to thank my colleagues on the line that have been answering some of the questions. I want to answer one generic question that I think we have been getting, and Craig, please jump in, regarding a FAFSA screenshot or a FAFSA on the Web worksheet, when that will be available. I’m told that it should be available later on at the end of this month. But we don’t have an exact date as to when they will be able to (unintelligible).

Craig Munier: Even I haven’t heard anything more recent than that.

Maisha Challenger: Fair enough. So, Craig, I think there is a question that you have? So do you want to maybe answer some questions at this time?

Craig Munier: Sure. Yes. Absolutely. I’m just going down here. This one? Here? So one of the questions that was asked, “If a family can’t see the income information pulled over from the Internal Revenue Service, how can they review that SAR information and know whether or not corrections are necessary?”

That’s a valid question. We are assuming that if the applicant is eligible to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool that the information that is transferred will be accurate. If they have concerns about that, the applicant can contact their institution. And by then, they will be able to see that information.

These are difficult choices to make between allowing for what we hope will continue to be a positive user experience to make it easier for the applicant to complete the FAFSA by not having to refer to a copy of the tax return. Yet, we recognize that the masking solution does present some new and unique challenges.

Second question, “How can families verify information?” That’s the same question. This question is about, “What kind of messages will students and parents receive about encryption when they’re in the middle?” There is some language on the FAFSA. I don’t have that language in front of me that’s going to explain to applicants that this information won’t be visible.

In fact, on the FAFSA on the Web session, I think the label is transferred from the IRS or words to that effect, and to indicate that the information there is just not visible. And I hope that answers that question. I think that’s what they’re after.

In terms of the encryption, my understanding is the encryption is just a higher level of an encryption of the data that’s passed over from the IRS to the FAFSA. And while that is an issue for the software developers and others that have to interpret receive and translate that information and unencrypted, I don’t think the encryption itself is something that will be even that the applicant or their family will be aware of.

Another question was, “Can you verify if a Perkins Loan can be increased to a higher amount after September 30 if a student received a first disbursement prior to September 30?” That’s a good question. I don’t know that we have that answer. You can complete disbursing, of course, after September 30. I’m going to have to take that one back, Maisha. Will you have a way to communicate an answer on that?

Maisha Challenger: Yes.

Craig Munier: She’s nodding yes. So I’m sorry I don’t have that up the top of my head. That’s a good question. Thanks for asking it. I’m sure we have an answer. I just don’t have it up the top of my head, so.

Let’s see. I think the question is - this question, I’m not quite clear on what the question is. It’s something - the postsecondary, I think, institution will share the information on the ISIR with families.

I think that’s what the - that’s the point of the electronic announcement that we issued just yesterday, is to remind schools that you have to be very careful on how much information you do share, especially, via e-mail or over the telephone, any other way other than in person, primarily because you have to be absolutely sure that the person that you are sharing that information with is the person they represent themselves to be.

That has been part of the challenge with the use; and misuse, quite honestly, of the IRS Data Retrieval Tool, is that it can be misused by people; misrepresented themselves as someone else. And so, we want to be sure that institutions also are aware of that risk and that they protect the use of the IRS Data Retrieval Tool for everyone by playing a critical role and making sure that malicious hackers don’t gain access to confidential information that you don’t have a right to have.

Maisha Challenger: And Craig, can you just reiterate what the Dear Colleague letter is for, the number is for, the announcement from yesterday?

Craig Munier: I didn’t say - not in Dear Colleague. It’s an electronic announcement dated September 5, 2017.

Maisha Challenger: I’m going to jump in very quickly. There is a question that was asked, “If families choose to not use the IRS DRT, then can they input all the data and will be able to see that data on the SAR?” In other words, can families bypass DRT so they can see the data?

So the DRT is not mandatory. But obviously, we want the schools - schools like using the DRT because we know that information is authentic. So you can absolutely bypass the DRT, but it is recommended that you use it. Craig, is there anything else you want to add to that?

Craig Munier: Yes, I just want to add a couple of things. First of all, the use of the IRS Data Retrieval Tool certainly reduces the amount of - a burden on both the applicant and the institution on the backend of the process in terms of verification. Even though the applicants who may be selected for verification haven’t used the IRS Data Retrieval Tool, the income and tax information will be flagged in a way that the institution can consider the information that was transferred and not changed because it couldn’t be changed as verified information. So it simplifies the process for the students on the backend.

A second thing is that we have some edits in the past, where it would generate comment codes 400 and 401. These are edits where there are - the answers to the questions, when you look at the total income reported versus total income exclusions reported, seem to be illogical. We won’t go into all of the detail. We had a guidance out there earlier on that.

But by using the Data Retrieval Tool, you significantly - the applicant significantly reduces the chances of them hitting those edits. And that has also required some additional documentation and additional follow-up by both the school and the applicant. So I still think using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool for many families and students will still simplify the FAFSA experience.

Maisha Challenger: There is another question people are asking regarding -- thank you, Craig for that -- FAFSA updates, the actual updates to the actual application. We actually had a webinar done recently on 2018-19 FAFSA update.

For example, someone says we have learned that the Web site is being changed to HTTPS. And that’s correct. There are some small modifications that are being made to the actual FAFSA form. There is a webinar on the Financial Aid Toolkit that will share all of the recent updates to the actual ‘18-‘19 FAFSA. That webinar will hopefully be available within the next week on the Financial Aid Toolkit Web site. So we encourage you all.

If you’re interested in looking at what the exact updates are to the actual FAFSA application, listen to that webinar, and we’ll have that information for you there. Craig, are there any other questions that you see that you might want to share or...?

Craig Munier: Let me look. This is a question, again, about year-round Pell. “Can you please clarify how a student can receive a year-round Pell Grant, fall, spring, summer?” So let’s walk through that a little bit, just using that very traditional fall, spring, summer calendar.

So if a student was enrolled for the fall semester as a full-time student, they would receive 50% of the full-time scheduled award for fall. If they again enrolled in the spring semester full-time, they would receive the second 50% of the 100% full-time scheduled award. Before year-round Pell, that student would not have any remaining Pell Grant eligibility for the summer session that trails those two terms.

Under year-round Pell, as long as that student remains otherwise eligible and enrolls at least half-time for the summer sessions, they would be able to get some additional Pell Grant up to an additional 50% of their scheduled award. So if that student was full-time, fall, spring and summer, all in the same award year, they could actually receive up to 150% of what would have been their ordinary scheduled, 100% scheduled award. I hope that makes sense.

So the important thing is that students that attend full-time, in what normally an academic year for example, schools can be assured that the student would still have remaining eligibility if they wish to continue their studies year-round basically or through the summer term in this example.

Maisha Challenger: Craig, can you just - because people were asking about what minimum Pell is. Can you go over the Pell award amount that we have currently?

Craig Munier: Yes. You’re making me go back to my slides to look at that. (Unintelligible). Yes, you’re talking about the minimum award for a Pell Grant?

Maisha Challenger: Correct. What’s the minimum and maximum award?

Craig Munier: Yes. As you know, the Pell Grant’s payment schedules that we - and you can go back and look at the information that’s on the slide about that, is based on - there is a full-time, three-quarter-time, half-time, and less-than-half-time scheduled, some of the scheduled awards.

So payment schedules are in the Dear Colleague Letter GEN-16-19 that we posted October 18, 2016. If a student - there’s several ways a student could receive less than the maximum awards for the award year that we’re showing on this Slide 18. One would be if a student attends less than full time, less than full year. They would receive something less than the maximum award. The other is that they have a higher-than-zero expected family contribution. Their scheduled awards would be reduced based on a higher EFC.

And then, finally, although rare, there could be institutions because of pretty low costs that are - that the cost of attendance is low enough that the student would have a slightly reduced scheduled award based on that lower cost. Those are pretty rare, but you can see that for yourself, if you look at the payment schedules in that Dear Colleague letter from October 18, 2016.

Maisha Challenger: Great. Thank you for sharing that. Are there any - I’m looking at some other questions that we haven’t addressed possibly or, Craig, is there any other information or recommendations you have for college access professionals as they begin this new year or things that they need to kind of pay attention to?

Craig Munier: One thing - yes, thank you. One of the things that’s on our mind here in Washington these days, as I’m sure throughout the country, is the effects of the natural disaster Hurricane Harvey. And, of course, we’re keeping a watchful eye on Hurricane Irma.

So we - the US Department of Education and along with many other departments in the federal government have been spending quite a bit of time trying to get as much administrative relief and help to those areas devastated by this natural disaster.

We’re going to be doing a series of, you know, webinars for affected schools. But to the extent that institutions around the country may be enrolling students from those affected areas, I think we - it probably goes without saying that we hope that institutions are mindful of those individuals and will certainly exercise their professional judgment authority where reasonable and an expected way to address the things that have happened to these families and these students in the affected areas.

Maisha Challenger: Great. Thank you. There’s another question about . “Will only redirect through the end of the year?” And so, yes, there will be a redirect through the end of the year. So then, obviously, if people put in the normal , they will be redirected. But it will be through the end of the year. And then, they will start having to use the new URL.

Craig Munier: Maisha, I also want to point out, we published on August 29 of this year, just a few days ago, Dear Colleague Letter GEN-17-08, and the subject of that is Guidance for Helping Title IV Participants Affected by a Major Disaster. And so, I’d refer our listeners to that information as well.

Maisha Challenger: Can you mention that again?

Craig Munier: Yes, published GEN-17-08, published August 29, 2017. You can find that on the IFAP Web site, the Institutional Financial Aid - Information for Financial Aid Professionals Web site. And the title is Guidance for Helping Title IV Participants Affected by a Major Disaster. I’m sure there’ll be more guidance forthcoming on that.

Maisha Challenger: Definitely. Great. I don’t see any more questions coming in, Craig, or you have any other questions you want to (unintelligible)?

Craig Munier: No. Thank you. Thanks for inviting me to be with you. And thank you to our partners out there in the field. We can’t do this work without you. And we’re all committed to making sure that the students that we serve have access to higher education postsecondary training. So thank you for all your efforts in that regard.

Maisha Challenger: And some of you were asking a couple of things. So where can you find the PowerPoint? The PowerPoint is located under the Files section for FSA Training underscore Policy Update. So you can download the PowerPoint. For the webinars that we mentioned earlier, you can register for them under Web Link.

And then, if you have any questions about policy or just when the FAFSA comes out, we do have a 1-800 number. The 1-800-4FED-AID number is available to you all, 1-800-433-3243.

If you have any questions, because obviously, as you all start the school year and/or assisting students and families, we want to make sure that you have the most up-to-date information as it relates to policy. Continue to go through the Financial Aid Toolkit Web site because we post announcements on policy updates there pretty much on a weekly basis.

And so, to keep current with all of the different changes that are happening, it is very important that you try to stay up-to-date. So again, financialaidtoolkit. is where you would want to go to get additional information.

And this webinar, this recording, if you guys want to take advantage of it, it will be posted on the Financial Aid Toolkit. Remember I mentioned there is a Searching Tool and Resources page. If you search under webinars, federal updates, federal student aid trainings, you will be able to find this webinar.

So again, at this point, we want to thank you all for joining us today. We hope this information was very helpful. We wish all of you the best of luck in conducting your trainings and conducting outreach to help our students and parents and families in the financial aid process as they prepare to go to college. We thank you again. And we hope you all have a wonderful day. Bye-bye.

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