Maintained for Historical Purposes

This resource is being maintained for historical purposes only and is not currently applicable.

(Verification) Subject: Program Integrity Questions and Answers (Q&A) Website Update

Posted Date:March 5, 2013

Author: David Bergeron, Acting Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education

Subject: Program Integrity Questions and Answers (Q&A) Website Update

As described in the Electronic Announcement dated September 2, 2011, the Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE) maintains a website containing Q&As pertaining to the Program Integrity final regulations that were published on October 29, 2010. We will continue to post new Q&As to the website and recently updated the verification portion of this website to clarify the award years for which specific guidance is applicable as follows:

  1. A statement was added to clarify that the guidance applies to both the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 award years, unless otherwise noted.

  2. General Questions section—

    1. The resources under VER-Q1/A1 are now organized into three sections—General, 2012-2013 Award Year, and 2013-2014 Award Year—and are updated as appropriate.

    2. Under VER-Q5, the words "effective for" are replaced with the words "beginning with".
  1. Verification Items section—

    1. Under VI-A2 and VI-A4, the reference to award year “2012-2013” FAFSA and Federal Student Aid Handbook was removed to make the guidance applicable to both the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 award years. Note that the FAFSA questions referenced in the guidance are the same for both the 2012-2013 FAFSA and the 2013-2014 FAFSA.

    2. Under VI-Q3/A3, the reference to award year “2012-2013” FAFSA Questions was removed to make the guidance applicable to both the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 award years. We also expanded the guidance to include the calendar years that should be used when documenting the receipt of SNAP benefits and the suggested text that provides the necessary statement if an applicant is selected to verify SNAP for the 2013-2014 award year as provided in an Electronic Announcement posted to IFAP on January 18, 2013.

    3. Under VI-A5 and DOC-A11, we clarified that the guidance applies only to the 2012-2013 award year.
  1. Updating Applicant’s FAFSA Information section, under UPD-A2, the page reference from the 2013-2014 ISIR Guide was added.

  2. Acceptable Documentation for FAFSA Information Selected for Verification section—

    1. Under, DOC-Q5/A5 through DOC-Q7/A7, the guidance was expanded to include references to the suggested text for the 2013-2014 award year that we provided in an Electronic Announcement posted to IFAP on January 18, 2013.

    2. Under DOC-A13, a reference to the 2013-2014 ISIR Guide that lists the IRS Request Flag codes was added.

    3. Under DOC-A15, the guidance was expanded to identify the information that should be included in the statement submitted to an institution by an individual who was the victim of identity theft.

To view these updates, please visit http://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2009/integrity-qa.html, click on the applicable topics, and look for a bolded revised date next those that have been modified.

If you have any questions about the information provided on the program integrity Q&A website regarding verification, please contact Jackie Butler at 202-502-7890.