Dear Colleagues,
After much anticipation, the Department of Education finally announced that the new FAFSA form will be available for students “by December 31, 2023,” though the agency stopped short of announcing an actual final release date. Even though students will be able to fill out the form in the new year, institutions will not get student information until at least the end of January 2024 due to expected processing delays. These delays are also going to impact state grant aid applications in many states.
Without a clear target date, the Department will continue to share updates with financial aid administrators via its Partner Connect website. Institutions will need to coordinate directly with students to work through the processing delays of the new FAFSA system.
Meanwhile, Congress avoided a government shutdown by passing a “laddered” continuing resolution that keeps part of the government funded through January 19, and part through February 2, 2024. As the broader debate on a government shutdown took place, the House of Representatives considered the FY2024 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill but delayed a final vote until after the Thanksgiving break.
In preparation for this bill, I sent a letter to the Rules Committee on Monday raising concerns about the bill’s elimination of funding for Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (SEOG) and Federal Work-Study (FWS) and a litany of amendments under consideration that would be damaging to students and their choice of institution.
The Biden Administration plans to veto this bill and cited, among other issues, the elimination of SEOG and FWS funding and that the Pell Grant is only level funded as reasons for opposing the bill.
In addition to the issues above, this week’s Washington Update also reports on multiple activities taking place on Capitol Hill related to anti-Semitism on college campuses and the third installment of the Department of Education’s Raise the Bar summits, this one focused on successful transfer partnerships.
Regulatory Gauntlet Webinar Series and Resources
As a reminder, NAICU is hosting a series of webinars to help you and your campus leadership prepare for implementation of the “gauntlet” of new regulations that have been issued the past several weeks. We hosted Part 1 of our series earlier this week focused on what you should expect on July 1, 2024, when these new regulations go into effect. Here is a link to the recording and presentation slides.
Our next two scheduled webinars are:
The Regulatory Gauntlet, Part 2: The Proposed New Overtime Rules (REGISTER)
November 30, 2:00-3:00 p.m. EST
On August 30, 2023, the Department of Labor announced a proposal to increase the salary threshold for overtime pay requirements from $35,568 to $55,068. The proposal includes automatic adjustments of the salary threshold every three years. NAICU President Barbara Mistick and CUPA-HR’s Chief Government Relations Officer, Josh Ulman, will discuss how higher education has responded to the proposed overtime regulations, the possible impact the proposal could have on your campus, and what could happen next.
The Regulatory Gauntlet, Part 3: The Department of Education’s Goals and Rationale (REGISTER)
December 14, 2:00-3:00 p.m. EST
The Department of Education has released hundreds of pages of new federal regulations that will take effect on July 1, 2024. This webinar, featuring NAICU President Barbara Mistick and, from the Department of Education, Ben Miller, deputy under secretary, and Jordan Matsudaira, deputy under secretary and chief economist, will go in-depth on the rationale behind the new regulations and the goals the Department hopes to achieve as a result.
We have also prepared summary documents for both sets of regulations:
- Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment (released on Sept. 30) - NAICU regulatory summary
- Accountability regulations (released on Oct. 24) - NAICU regulatory summary
NAICU’s office will be closed on Wednesday afternoon, Thursday, and Friday of next week for Thanksgiving. I wish you a very happy, restful, and thankful Thanksgiving holiday.
Regards,
Barbara
Barbara K. Mistick, D.M.
President, NAICU