Federal Updates

Guidance on updates to recent loan purchase programs

ED recently announced updates to Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans (ECASLA) announcement #68 (see Shoptalk Online edition 516), which provided information about the four new servicers that have been awarded contracts to service student loans held by ED, including loans sold to ED through the Loan Purchase Programs authorized under ECASLA. The update includes several revised attachments.

More information
The updated announcement and attachments are available on ED's ECASLA Web site at http://federalstudentaid.ed.gov/ffelp.

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New TEACH Grant guidance

ED has published a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL-GEN-09-10) that summarizes a change made by the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) to the TEACH Grant Program requirement that a grant recipient teach in a high-need field to fulfill the TEACH Grant service obligation.

In addition to the specific high-need fields identified in the Higher Education Act (HEA), a grant recipient may also fulfill the service obligation by teaching in another field documented as high-need by the federal government, a state government, or a local education agency, and approved by the Secretary. Federal regulations currently state that a TEACH Grant recipient may satisfy his or her service obligation by this method only if that field is designated by a state as high-need at the time the recipient begins qualifying teaching in that field in that state.

Under the HEOA, however, beginning with the 2010-11 academic year, a TEACH Grant recipient may satisfy the obligation if a field was designated as high-need for any award year in which the student received a TEACH Grant, even if the field is no longer designated as such when the grant recipient begins teaching.

Because the change made by the HEOA does not become effective until July 1, 2010, teaching service performed prior to the 2010-11 school year will not count toward satisfying the requirement to teach in a high-need field unless the field is designated as such when the TEACH Grant recipient begins teaching.

ED will publish regulations reflecting this change in the Final Rules that are developed to carry out the changes made to the TEACH Grant Program by the HEOA.

More information
The complete DCL is available on the Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) Web site at http://www.ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/GEN0910.html.

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Additional ED guidance on excluding veterans' benefits from estimated financial assistance

To provide clarification about veterans' educational benefits that are excluded from estimated financial assistance (EFA), ED recently provided additional information in an electronic announcement posted on the Information for Financial Aid Professional's Web site (IFAP). The announcement indicates that the programs, administered by the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DOD), are eligible to be excluded effective July 1, 2009. The announcement also includes questions and answers that may be helpful as financial aid professionals package veterans' financial aid for the 2009-10 award year. The announcement can be viewed online.

More information
For more information about the exclusion of veterans' education benefits from EFA, see Shoptalk Online editions 510 and 511.

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