Federal Updates

DCL provides information about new federal grant programs

On April 5, ED released GEN-06-04, a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) which provides a general overview of the Academic Competitiveness Grant and SMART Grant Programs. These programs, established by the Higher Education Reconciliation Act of 2005 (HERA), offer a new source of funding for undergraduate students who meet certain need- and merit-based criteria. We anticipate that ED will be providing more detailed information about the administration of these grant programs in the near future.

Academic Competitiveness Grant
An eligible student may receive the Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG) in the amount of $750 for the first year of study and $1,300 for the second year of study. Each ACG recipient:

• Must be a Pell-eligible U.S. citizen.
• Must be enrolled full-time in the first or second year of a degree program at a two- or four-year degree-granting school.
• Must have completed a rigorous high school program (after January 1, 2006, for first-year recipients in 2006-07, or after January 1, 2005, for second-year recipients in 2006-07).
• Must not have been previously enrolled in an undergraduate program, if a first-year student, and must have earned a minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA at the end of the first year of undergraduate study, if a second-year student.

Awarding the ACG
ED will identify FAFSA applicants who are potentially eligible for the ACG (based on EFC, U.S. citizenship, and anticipated grade level) and notify them of their potential eligibility (either by e-mail or by regular mail, if the student does not provide an e-mail address on his or her FAFSA). A notified student may then self-certify via an ED Web site that he or she has completed a "rigorous" high-school program of study. (ED will provide an alternative means of self-certification for students who do not have Internet access.) ED will then notify the schools listed on the student's FAFSA of the student's potential eligibility, and the school the student attends will be responsible for confirming the student's eligibility and submitting payment information records to ED through COD.

SMART Grant
The SMART Grant Program will award $4,000 per year for the third and fourth years of undergraduate study. Each SMART Grant recipient must:

• Be a Pell-eligible U.S. citizen.
• Enroll full time in the third or fourth year of an undergraduate degree program at a four-year degree granting institution.
• Pursue one of the following majors: physical, life, or computer sciences; mathematics; technology; engineering (as determined by ED); or a foreign language deemed critical to U.S. national security (as determined by ED in conjunction with the director of National Intelligence).
• Earn a minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA in coursework required for the major.

Awarding the SMART Grant
In awarding SMART Grants, the school will be responsible for identifying potentially-eligible students (based on U.S. citizenship, Pell grant eligibility, and full-time enrollment), and coordinating with appropriate campus entities to determine GPA and major code eligibility (using a list of eligible majors determined by ED, using the Classification of Instruction Program codes). As with the ACG, once a school has confirmed the student's eligibility for a SMART Grant, the school will request the funds and draw them down through COD.

Additional issues and unanswered questions
The following are a couple of additional issues that the DCL addresses, a few that it does not, and one area of discrepancy between the HERA and the DCL.

• In GEN-06-04, ED stresses that a student may not receive more than one ACG or SMART Grant award in each year that he or she is enrolled and eligible. ED also notes that if, in any given year, funding appropriated for the grant program is not sufficient to award all eligible recipients at the established amounts, the annual award amounts for that year will be "ratably reduced."
• For the purpose of determining a student's cumulative GPA for SMART Grant eligibility, it is uncertain at this time which coursework will be considered "required for the major" — in other words, it is unknown whether a school will consider all coursework that counts toward a degree or only coursework within a specific department.
• It is unclear whether certain types of "nontraditional" high school graduates will be eligible for the ACG. Such nontraditional students include graduates of overseas or foreign high schools (including high school programs at U.S. military bases), students who complete concurrent enrollment coursework (i.e., college coursework taken during high school), as well as graduates from private or home-school programs.
• ED has not stated whether students' grades, major codes, or other academic performance information will be reported to ED at any point during the awarding or disbursement process.
• Finally, ED is expected to provide clarification regarding the process of including an ACG or SMART Grant in a student's aid package. The HERA states that "the amount of such grant, in combination with the Federal Pell Grant assistance and other student financial assistance available to such student, shall not exceed the student's cost of attendance," whereas GEN-06-04 states that "the amount of the student's grant, in combination with the student's Federal Pell Grant assistance and other resources and estimated financial assistance, may not exceed the student's financial need." TG anticipates that ED will soon issue additional information about this disparity.

What's next?
TG anticipates that regulations (a.k.a. final rules) regarding the new grant programs will be published in the near future. However, be aware that some of those regulations could be modified the next time that negotiated rulemaking occurs. In addition, ED is expected to publish a list of eligible majors for the SMART Grant Program shortly. By July 1, students with a 2006-07 FAFSA on file will be notified of ACG eligibility and ED's online self-certification module will be available.

More information
Shoptalk Online will provide information about additional ED guidance as it become available. GEN-06-04 is available at http://ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/GEN0604.html. For more information about the Academic Competitiveness and SMART Grant Programs, call TG customer assistance at (800) 845-6267 or send an e-mail message to cust.assist@tgslc.org.

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ED releases final volumes of the 2006-07 FSA Handbook — TG offers complete bookmarked version

With the release of volume 1, Student Eligibility; volume 2, School Eligibility and Operations; and volume 3, Calculating Awards and Packaging, of the new 2006-07 Federal Student Aid Handbook (FSA Handbook), all volumes of the latest edition of the FSA Handbook are now available. To assist customers in using the FSA Handbook as a whole, TG has combined all of its volumes into one easy-to-use, searchable PDF. The PDF includes bookmarks of all the individual volumes, as well as bookmarks of the chapters and appendices within each volume. TG will make updates to the bookmarked file as they become available from ED.

Accessing the bookmarked FSA Handbook
To access this practical research tool, visit TG Online at www.tgslc.org/resources/fsa_handbook.cfm.

Questions
For questions about the 2006-07 FSA Handbook, contact TG customer assistance at (800) 845-6267 or send an e-mail message to cust.assist@tgslc.org.

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Closed school corner

Following is a list of newly reported school closures and error corrections from the Postsecondary Educational Participants System (PEPS) and from the March 2006 Closed School Monthly Report supplied by the Department of Education:

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