Final Announcement From the Biden-Harris Administration Completers Lists Process Concluded And Sent Out For Earnings Data Calculations & FVT/GE Reporting Process Extended Until February 18, 2025
Overview
Just moments ago the U.S. Department of Education released an Electronic Announcement (fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center/library/electronic-announcements/2025-01-17/reopening-fvt-and-ge-debt-reporting-process-until-mid-february) entitled, “Reopening of FVT and GE Reporting Process Until Mid-February.” The announcement is to “inform the community that the completers lists associated with the Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment (FVT/GE) have been completed, and those data will be shortly sent to another Federal agency to calculate median earnings information.” The announcement continues, “while these data are calculated, the Department will be reopening the reporting process for debt and other information from (Tuesday) January 21, 2025 until (Tuesday) February 18, 2025.” Concluding the opening summary wit, This approach provides more time to institutions that were unable to complete reporting by January 15, 2025, while staying on track to meet the Department’s
goal of making these data available to students this spring.”
The announcement goes on to identify some of the common issues during the reporting process and include information on how to address these issues as well.
CSPEN’s Initial Assessment
Completers Lists
The announcement states definitively that “the completers lists have been finalized and will be sent to another federal agency (presumably the IRS) to calculate the median earnings information.” Copies of the final lists were to have been automatically transmitted to your institution through your SAIG TG mailbox, if your institution has enrolled in the NSLDS FVT/GE reporting portal.
If your institution did not already receive this information automatically, it can be obtained through SAIG TG, if your institution requests the FVT/GE Completers List Ad Hoc Report on the NSLDS Professional Access website.
The announcement makes it equally clear that “completers lists will not be updated based to pm changes made to administrative data in NSLDS, including changes made by the institution in NSLDS enrollment reporting for this cycle.”
(Note: CSPEN suggests that all institutions request a copy of the final completers lists on file within the Department so that you can review and make as certain as possible that the data is accurate/correct immediately. While it is clear that the process is on lock down, we anticipate that documentation of errors or inaccuracies will be important moving forward.)
FVCT/GE Reporting Deadline
The announcement reaffirms the summary above regarding an extension/reopening of the FVT/GE reporting system until Tuesday, February 18, 2025. The announcement states, “overall the vast majority of institutions submitted data…however, the significant number of reports submitted in the final days before the January 15 deadline led to significant increases in processing time.” The Department acknowledges that, “as a result, institutions that submitted reports in the last several days were not always able to receive timely reports indicating errors that needed to be corrected.”
Noting that the additional time will enable institutions time to complete reporting and correct any issues that they may not have had time to address from the prior submissions.
A key development, which deviates favorably from CSPEN’s reported expectation that an institution would have to justify/verify efforts to submit the data before the deadline, the guidance states the institutions submitting under the extension WILL NOT be required to provide the Department with “explanations at this time, as they (the Department) will not be processed by the Department.”
Another key development is, if an institution was unable to complete reporting by the new February 18, 2025 deadline, the announcement passively states that any such institution will simply be “required to provide all required date for this cycle that it was unable to provide by the deadline during the next reporting cycle.” Institutions that fall into this category (i.e. institutions who do not compete the process) WILL be required to provide explanations. The Department goes on to say that they will be “working on a standardized process for institutions to use to provide this information” and that the Department, “will provide more information about that process in the future.”
The announcement then provides specifics on how institutions can address some common errors in in both the file student submittal records, and program submittal errors. The Department references the common errors associated with each category and guidance to try and help correct the error(s).
What’s Next
CSPEN will continue to review the announcement and provide even more details moving forward, but we wanted the community to have this anticipated guidance as soon as possible. Happy Friday!
