Department of Education Delays Deadlines for Gainful Employment Compliance

The Department of Education announced it is providing institutions additional time to comply with two key requirements associated with gainful employment (GE). According to the Department, these delays will provides more time to review the GE regulations and their implications.

• Debt-to-Earnings Ratios: Institutions have been given additional time to submit documentation for alternative earnings appeals of their Debt-to-Earnings ratios for gainful employment program completers.  The new deadline for submitting final appeals documentation for zone or failing rates is now July 1, 2017.  The original deadline was on or before March 10, 2017.
• Gainful Employment Disclosures: The date for gainful employment disclosures using the recently released mandatory 2017 disclosure template has been pushed back from April 3, 2017 to July 1, 2017. 

The announcement of these delays follows a series of notices from the Department regarding various administrative details and deadlines for appeals, disclosures about failing rates, and notifications to students that would have made the gainful employment regulations fully operational.  The postponement will benefit schools with programs receiving unacceptable Debt-to-Earnings ratios - mostly for-profit schools – by giving them more time to gather data for their appeals.  It will also eliminate the need for institutions to provide warnings to current and prospective students regarding the risk of their programs for several months. 

Any institution wishing to appeal its Debt-to-Earnings rate as published on January 9, 2017, must have already submitted a Notice of Intent to appeal by January 23, 2017.  Such notices have been filed almost exclusively by proprietary schools.


Contacts:
Tim Powers

Maureen Budetti