Top 6 Takeaways from Recent Financial Aid Regulation Announcements

Over the last few months there have been a few key announcements worth mentioning to ensure you remain compliant. Following these will ensure compliance. Here are a few of the top takeaways from recent Department of Education updates. 

1. Updates to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act Cybersecurity Requirements: On December 9, 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued final regulations (Final Rule) to amend the Standards for Safeguarding Customer Information (Safeguards Rule), an important component of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act’s (GLBA) requirements for protecting the privacy and personal information of consumers. The effective date for most of the changes to the Safeguards Rule is June 9, 2023. This Electronic Announcement provides a summary of  the changes to the GLBA requirements resulting from the Final Rule, explains the impacts of the changes on postsecondary institutions, and describes changes to the Department of Education’s (Department) enforcement of the GLBA requirements. 
2. New Cybersecurity Resources for Institutes of Higher Education Available: Federal Student Aid (FSA) has developed two new factsheets on how to establish an Incident Response Plan (IRP) and the importance of data sanitization. 
3. FSA Enforcement Bulletin, March 2023 – Announcing Use of Secret Shoppers: Federal Student Aid (FSA) is charged with managing the administrative and oversight functions of student aid programs authorized under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 and its implementing regulations. These oversight efforts serve multiple purposes, such as protecting students, ensuring the quality of school programs and the accuracy of representations about those programs, and safeguarding the interests of taxpayers in the expenditure of public funds. 
4. Implementing the 2024–25 FAFSA Process: The U.S. Department of Education's (the Department) office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) published the Better FAFSA Better Future Roadmap (Roadmap), an implementation timeline of resources, guidance, and training materials for students and parents, schools and institutions, and other stakeholders about the redesigned 2024-25 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form. The redesigned FAFSA form is the most ambitious and significant redesign of the federal student aid application and delivery in decades, and will significantly simplify how students, parents, and other educational stakeholders use the FAFSA form starting this year. 
5. 2023–24 Funding Levels for the Campus-Based Programs: Final funding levels are now out and corresponding worksheets for the Federal Work-Study (FWS) Program and the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG) Program for the 2023–24  award year (July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024) posted to the Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) website by Feb. 1, 2023. 
6. Requirements and Responsibilities for Third-Party Servicers and Institutions (Updated Feb. 28, 2023): The letter updates guidance to institutions that contract with a third-party servicer (TPS) to administer any aspect of the institution’s participation in the student assistance programs authorized under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA). 

Of course, these are just a few highlights of information over the last few months. Let our financial aid and compliance experts help your department boost its efforts. Contact us today to explore options. Get FA Solutions and ECM today! 

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