In Lieu Of Our Regularly Scheduled Webinar, Here Is A Brief Update We Hope You Find Useful

Overview
Good afternoon! Given travel to visit with schools within our community earlier in the week, you probably noticed that we are not having a CSPEN Federal Legislative & Regulatory Update webinar today. To make up for the void, below is a rather extensive update for your consideration.

Vitally Important Department Updates

New Guidance Related to the Final Rules
On Monday, May the U.S. Department of Education released both a comprehensive Dear Colleague Letter (fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center/library/dear-colleague-letters/2024-05-16/implementation-regulations-related-financial-responsibility-administrative-capability-certification-procedures-and-abil…) summarizing the requirements that the Department is implementing for the 2024-25 Award Year (taking effect July 1, 2024) and a separate Electronic Announcement highlighting the Policy Guidance website (www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/guidance.html) – which provides continuing updates, including new updates contained within the announcement regarding:

* Financial Responsibility Regulations FAQs (www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2024/financial-responsibility.html) : Examples include the required alignment of an institution’s fiscal year used for Title IV purposes and the one used for tax return purposes as well as whether these regulations apply to foreign schools participating in the Federal Direct Loan Program.

* Certification Procedure Regulations FAQs (www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2024/certification-q-and-a.html) : Examples include further explanation of the disclosure requirements for programs leading to licensure or certification; additional guidance on the transcript withholding requirement; and how the Department determines whether a prospective student is considered enrolled in distance education.

Final Tally of Responses to the Student Loan Debt Relief NPRM
Last Friday, May 17, 2024 was the deadline for interested parties to provide public comment on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) entitled “Student Debt Relief for the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program, the Federal Family Education Loan Program, the Federal Perkins Loan Program, and the Health Education Assistance Loan Program.” As summarized by the Department:

“The proposed regulations would modify the Department’s existing debt collection regulations to provide greater specificity regarding the Secretary’s discretion to waive Federal student loan debt and specify the Secretary’s authority to waive all or part of any debts owed to the Department based on a number of different circumstances, such as growth in a borrower’s loan balance beyond what was owed upon entering repayment, the amount of time since the loan first entered repayment, whether the borrower meets certain criteria for loan forgiveness or discharge under existing authority, and whether a loan was obtained to attend an institution or program that was subject to secretarial actions, that closed prior to secretarial actions, or was associated with closed Gainful Employment programs with high debt-to-earnings rates or low median earnings.”

In response to the NPRM Regulations.gov reflects a total of 126,831 submitted comments in response to the proposals. CSPEN assisted in and supported the development and submission of several comments and is in the process of doing a general review of the range of sentiments shared and will provide a summary in June.

With comments now submitted, the Department is responsible for reviewing and considering all the comments submitted, consider and potentially make revisions to the regulations based upon the comments, and publish the regulations as Final Rules. Given the Biden-Harris Administration’s unwavering emphasis on the desire to provide students with debt relief, CSPEN is confident that the Department will complete its review and publish a Final Rule on or before November 1, 2024, to comply with the Master Calendar deadline. Doing so would ensure implementation of the regulations on July 1, 2025. However, CSPEN anticipates that the Department will likely offer student borrowers with the ability for early implementation of the regulations. Time will tell.

Planning and Preparation for Pending Release of Program Integrity and Institutional Accountability NPRM
With the Student Loan Debt Relief regulatory revisions process entering the final phases; all eyes and attention now shift to the next step in the developmental process for the Program Integrity and Institutional Accountability regulatory revisions. In the coming weeks, CSPEN anticipates that the Department will submit a draft of the multitude of revisions deliberated earlier this year as part of the 2023-2024 Federal Negotiated Rulemaking to the White House.

Once the proposals are submitted to the White House interested parties have the opportunity to request meetings with White House and Department representatives to share observations, concerns, and recommendations for consideration under Executive Order 12866 (www.archives.gov/files/federal-register/executive-orders/pdf/12866.pdf) .

CSPEN will be requesting one of these meetings and strongly encourage our community to consider requesting your own as well. We are currently in the process of going back over the entire package of proposals and negotiations in an effort to develop a concise set of final recommendations and documents to present. Our preparation includes collaborative work with multiple different groups of institutions, national and state organizations, and more. We will continue to update and share more on our efforts on a regular basis.

Equally Important Congressional Activity and Updates

Ongoing Focus on Civil Rights Concerns
As highlighted in previous CSPEN Federal Legislative & Regulatory Update webinars, Congress, in particularly in the House, continue to hold hearings on civil rights issues on antisemitism. Today, the House Committee on Education & the Workforce held its fifth hearing on the actions of both the Administration and institutions across the entire spectrum of education – with emphasis on higher education – are addressing the challenges related to handling the conflicts arising on higher education campuses. Today’s hearing entitled, “Calling for Accountability: Stopping Antisemitic College Chaos”, called on the leadership at Northwestern University, University of California Los Angeles, and Rutgers University to answer for “the rampant antisemitism engulfing their campuses and threatening their Jewish students.”

Plethora of Congressional Letters on Final Rules and NPRMs Being Sent to Secretary/Department
In response to both Final Rules promulgated last year and pending proposals like the Student Loan Debt Relief NPRM noted above, Congress has been very busy authoring and submitting letters to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Department leaders. Past letters have focused on concerns regarding implementation of the FAFSA Simplification Act and the issue regarding the lengthy and error ridden rollout and processing of student financial aid calculations, as well as concerns with the timeline for reporting and implementation of the Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment regulations.

Most recently Congressional letters are being developed focusing on both prior Final Rules (150%/100% Rule) and pending NPRMs (student loan debt relief, exclusion of books et. al. from tuition and fees, and significant revisions to distance education).

CSPEN will continue to both track and share information on the development, circulation, and requests for support of these and other letters of importance to our students and schools. We remind all institutions with concerns regarding the proposed revisions regarding limits on the length of clock hour programs leading to licensure and certification – subject to the GE regulations – currently being circulated by Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA). For more information on this initiative, please refer to the prior notice on our website or contact Tom directly at tom@tengovtstrategies.com.

What’s Next
CSPEN continues to monitor, track, report and assist in summarizing and sharing information on the compliance guidance being released by the Department. With an emphasis on working to provide interpretations directly from Department officials, we will continue to strive to provide you with more clarity and direct answers to the questions that must be presented in a clear and unambiguous manner. This includes pending webinars on key issues like Title IX, Cybersecurity, and FTC Safeguard Rules among others. Stay tuned for more details on these webinars coming soon!

CSPEN also continues to both lead and support efforts on Capitol Hill which promote the development of equitable legislative proposals, correspondence with Federal Agencies (Education, Labor, Veterans Affairs et al.) seeking guidance and/or actions important to students and the institutions who educate them, and more!