Changes to Higher Education Policy Tucked into Congress’ Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020
As widely reported over the Holidays, Congress and the President enacted a Consolidated Appropriations bill that includes fiscal year 2021 funding for the federal government, as well as additional Coronavirus relief funding. Several higher education association websites and trade journal articles provide excellent summaries of the major funding changes and COVID-related resources made available under the legislation. These summaries also provide information about the important Pell eligibility changes and the simplifications to the financial aid process that Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, had long sought prior to his retirement. Rather than provide a duplicative summary here, this post briefly highlights just two of the provisions quietly tucked into this massive legislative package that are not receiving as much attention. These two changes to existing financial aid provisions – one relating to professional judgment and the other to cost of attendance calculations – will particularly impact the day-to-day work of college and university financial aid administrators when determining students’ aid packages.
First, the legislation makes changes to the Higher Education Act’s (HEA) provisions that regulate the use of a financial aid administrator’s “professional judgment” when adjusting the amount of a student’s financial aid package. Under current law, section 479A of the HEA provides discretion to financial aid administrators to be able in certain circumstances to adjust the values of data collected to calculate expected student/parent contributions to a student’s tuition package. However, over the years, many institutions have felt constrained in the use of this discretionary authority. Under the amendments enacted, the new law makes clear that institutions are prohibited from maintaining any policy that denies all professional judgment requests by students. In addition, it provides more details regarding the special circumstances under which professional judgment may be used and regarding the documentation needed when doing so. The amendments also provide increased opportunity for aid administrators to offer students aid without requiring parent involvement in certain circumstances. Importantly, financial aid administrators may have more flexibility to utilize professional judgment during times of national emergency (as is the case during this pandemic). For more detail about these changes, please see Division FF “Other Matters”, Title VII “FAFSA Simplification”, Section 702(i), pages 5178-5194 of the legislative package.
The second amendments highlighted in this post are to the “Cost of Attendance” (COA) provisions of the HEA (Sec. 472 of the HEA). Under current law, the Department is limited in its ability to regulate the various components of an institution’s cost of attendance. With these amendments, the Secretary is given more authority to regulate in this area, although not regarding tuition and fee amounts. In addition, the new language provides significantly more statutory detail regarding several component costs. For example:
The new language itemizes in more detail how to calculate transportation, food, and housing allowances, with additional clarifications regarding students with and without dependents.
For the first time, the COA language also explicitly states that “for a student receiving all or part of the student’s instruction by means of telecommunications technology, no distinction shall be made with respect to the mode of instruction in determining costs,” and,
It also provides statutory guidance for how to calculate students enrolled less than half-time.
Of additional note are new disclosure requirements for institutions, requiring all colleges and universities to make the elements of their COA calculation publicly available, including on their websites with their tuition and fee language. For more detail about these changes, please see Division FF “Other Matters”, Title VII “FAFSA Simplification”, Section 702(b), pages 5141-5147 of the legislative package.
While these two provisions may be small and weedy relative to many of the other education provisions in this massive piece of legislation, together they may significantly impact an institution’s financial aid office when calculating its cost of attendance or when considering adjustments to individual student financial aid packages.
As we close out 2020, I would like to express my gratitude to all of those in the higher education community who have offered support and guidance this year as I launched Blum Higher Education Advising, PLLC. While this year has presented challenges and difficulties beyond anyone’s expectations, it has also provided an opportunity to see the amazing good-will, strength, creativity, and caring that exists throughout the higher education community and I feel so fortunate to occupy a small space within it. Sending wishes for a happy and healthier 2021!