Gainful Employment Electronic Announcement #46 - Release of the Disclosure Template for Gainful Employment (GE) Programs

Posted Date: November 22, 2013

Subject: Gainful Employment Electronic Announcement #46 - Release of the Disclosure Template for Gainful Employment (GE) Programs

We are announcing the release of the GE Disclosure Template. The regulations at 34 CFR 668.6(b)(2)(iv) provide that institutions must use the Disclosure Template issued by the Secretary to provide all of the required GE disclosures. Institutions must, no later than January 31, 2014, use the output document produced from the GE Disclosure Template to meet the currently effective GE disclosure regulatory requirements.

This template will allow institutions that offer GE Programs to meet their disclosure responsibilities under 34 CFR 668.6(b) to ensure that prospective students have complete and comparable information regarding these programs.

The GE Disclosure Template –

• Produces an output document for institutions that includes all of the required GE disclosures;

• Provides built-in compliance with the requirement in the regulations that the disclosures be made in “an open format that is platform-independent, machine-readable, and made available to the public without restrictions that would impede the reuse of that information”;

• Ensures that the output document will be accessible to individuals with disabilities (i.e., compliant with section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act);

• Provides optional context boxes for the institution to provide additional explanations and clarifications;

• Simplifies the process for institutional determination of applicable Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes and allows institutions to automatically link to the appropriate O*NET occupational profiles; and

• Offers a bulk upload option for institutions with multiple GE Programs.

To access the disclosure template application, the institution must go to the following website: http://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2009/negreg-summerfall.html.

For each GE Program, the institution will enter its six-digit OPEID, the six-digit CIP code for the GE Program, and the credential level of the GE Program. The institution will then complete the template with specific information about the GE Program, consistent with GE Electronic Announcement #25. This includes program length, selecting the appropriate SOC codes for the program (based on the program’s CIP code), the cost of the program, information needed for the template to calculate an on-time completion rate, median debt information, and the job placement rate, if applicable. Once the form is complete, the template application will generate a zip file containing the GE Program’s disclosure page, which the institution will host on its own website.

In making the required disclosures using the GE Disclosure Template, institutions must prominently provide a direct link from the home page of the GE Program website to the program’s disclosure page that was generated by the disclosure template application. Any other web page containing general, academic, or admissions information about the GE Program must also contain a prominent and direct link to the program’s web home page or to the GE Program disclosure page generated by the application.

Note that the information above differs slightly from earlier guidance specifying that the required GE disclosures must be displayed on the actual GE Program home page and may not be linked to another site or document. For this current disclosure process, the functionality of the required disclosure template is such that an institution must provide a link to the generated GE disclosure page for the program instead of having the disclosures appear on the program home page itself.

We encourage institutions to begin the GE Disclosure Template process as soon as possible to ensure compliance with the January 31, 2014 deadline for disclosing 2012-2013 award year information.

We have created a comprehensive GE Disclosure Template Quick Start Guide to assist institutions in using the GE Disclosure Template. If, after reviewing the Guide, your institution has any technical questions regarding the GE Disclosure Template, please contact our Help Desk toll-free at (855) 359-3697 or gedt@inovas.net.

If you have any policy questions about the gainful employment disclosure requirements that are not answered in the Guide or on the FAQ section of the GE Information Page, please submit them to the GE Questions mailbox at GE-Questions@ed.gov.