Financial Aid Procedure

Procedure: Verification, Updates and Corrections

Effective Date: January 2016

Procedure Number: FA 9

A. Scope

To establish a policy to verify applications selected by the Central Processing System (CPS) who will receive (or have received) subsidized student financial assistance.

B. Institutional Regulations

To establish procedures regarding a time period to complete verification documentation, consequences for failing to submit timely verification documentation, methods to notify students of changes in Estimated Family Contribution (EFC) and Title IV amounts, correction of FAFSA data, and referring a student to the Office of Inspector General (OIG).

C. Procedure

1. Verification of applications selected by the CPS of students who will receive or who have received subsidized financial assistance is required. Verification is not required if a student will only receive unsubsidized student financial assistance, though a student cannot avoid verification by only accepting unsubsidized aid.

The verification process includes:

a. Receipt of an Institutional Student Information Report (ISIR) by the college that identifies a student is selected for verification.

b. Notification via mail and/or email to the student that additional documentation is required for awarding of financial aid. The notification (document tracking letter) will include a check-list of items that must be provided to the financial aid office.

c. A student selected for verification will have a period of two weeks to provide the information to the financial aid office.

d. If a student fails to meet the required time frame to provide requested verification documentation the student will not be approved to proceed in the awarding process.

e. A valid ISIR must be received by the office of financial aid prior to the end of the semester in which the student wishes to obtain subsidized financial aid or aid will not be originated for the semester.

f. If a student withdraws from the college prior to completing the verification process, the student will have two weeks to complete all steps of the financial aid verification and awarding process or will not be allowed to receive any federal financial aid.

g. Verification must be completed for a student before the director of financial aid can exercise a professional judgement.

2. The financial aid department will exercise the right to make adjustments to a student’s ISIR as permitted by federal guidelines. If changes are made by the financial aid department that result in a change of the EFC or Title IV amounts, the student will be notified on their Student Aid Report (SAR), CampusConnect, statement of student account, and award letter. The corrected SAR will be mailed to the student within ten days by CPS. Changes will be made on the statement of student account, CampusConnect, and an award letter once the financial aid department has processed the corrected ISIR.

3. A student, generally, cannot update information that was correct as of the date the FAFSA application was signed because the FAFSA is considered to be a “snapshot” of the family’s financial situation as of that date.

a. After the FAFSA is signed, only certain items can be updated under the following conditions:

i. All applicants whose dependency status changes must update that status and the associated FAFSA information throughout the award year except when the update is caused by a change in the student’s marital status.

ii. All applicants selected by the Department or a school for verification of household size or number in college must update those numbers to be correct as of the date of verification unless the update is due to a change in the student’s marital status.

b. Any student who has a Federal Student Aid Identification Document (FSA ID) and password regardless of how the student originally applied may correct any of their own data by using FAFSA on the Web at www.fafsa.gov. If dependent students need to change parental data, a parent must either sign electronically with his/her own FSA ID and password or print out and sign a signature page.

c. The college can submit corrections and updates electronically through FAA Access to CPS Online or Electronic Data Exchange (EDE) as permitted by federal guidelines.

4. If the college suspects that a student, employee, or other individual has misreported information or altered documentation to fraudulently obtain federal funds, a report of the suspicion and any evidence will be submitted to the Office of the Inspector General.

OIG Address and Phone Numbers
Regional Offices / Telephone No. / National Hotline
Boston, MA / (617) 289-0174 / Inspector General’s Hotline
Office of Inspector General
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20202-1500
1-800-MIS-USED
(1-800-647-8733)
Hours: M, W 9–11am
T, Th 1–3pm
To submit a complaint online at any time, go to http://www. ed.gov/about/offices/list/oig/ hotline.html and click on the appropriate link.
New York, NY / (646) 428-3861
Philadelphia, PA / (215) 656-6900
Pittsburgh, PA / (215) 656-6900
Atlanta, GA / (404) 974-9430
Pembroke Pines, FL / (404) 974-9430
Chicago, IL / (312) 730-1630
Ann Arbor, MI / (312) 730-1630
Dallas, TX / (214) 661-9530
Denver, CO / (303) 844-0058
Kansas City, MO / (816) 268-0530
Long Beach, CA / (562) 980-4141
Phoenix, AZ / (562) 980-4141
San Juan, PR / (787) 766-6278
Washington, DC / (202) 245-6911

Financial Aid Director

Chief Executive Officer