The Department of Education (the Department) is working to ensure that the 2023 Virtual Federal Student Aid Training Conference for Financial Aid Professionals provides informative and relevant information to you, our higher education partners. To develop sessions that are responsive and timely, we are asking you to submit questions on common and important federal student aid-related issues that can be addressed as part of the question and answers portion of one of the sessions below:
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Calculating a Federal Pell Grant – This session will provide additional information on the changes to awarding and disbursing Pell Grants for the 2024-25 award year. You will hear from experts about how these changes will be implemented next year.
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Data Use and Considerations Under the Future Act and FAFSA Simplification – The U.S. Department of Education will examine new provisions around federal tax information (FTI) and FAFSA® data use under the FUTURE Act and FAFSA Simplification Act. The session will provide an overview of statutory provisions and changes from the current environment, as well as examine how these issues intersect with FERPA requirements.
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FAFSA Simplification: Application and Need Analysis – This session will provide in-depth information about the changes to the FAFSA application and need analysis that will be implemented for the 2024-25 award year. You will hear from policy experts about the effects of these changes on both students and institutions.
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Regulatory Update – This session will provide an overview of the regulatory changes implemented on July 1, 2023, including changes related to affordability and student loan repayment, and institutional and programmatic eligibility.
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Update on Prison Education Programs (PEPs) for Confined or Incarcerated Individuals – This July students incarcerated in federal or state penal institutions and students who are subject to involuntary commitments became eligible for Pell Grants for the first time since 1994. This session will outline the application and approval process for PEPs, review the PEP Application Form and discuss the various resources available to assist schools with the application and approval process.
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General Questions and Answers – Finally, in this session, our experts will be responding to other more general student aid-related questions submitted.
To ensure your input is considered for inclusion in the Department’s presentations, please submit your question(s) and the related session(s) via email to FSATC_Policy@ed.gov by Sept. 13, 2023.
Though the Department will review all questions submitted, due to time constraints it may not be possible to address all the questions received. Presenters will focus on questions with the broadest appeal to the higher education community. Questions submitted to the Department through this process will not receive an individual response. If your questions are not addressed within the formal presentation and/or you still have outstanding issues, please submit them to the Department using the Contact Customer Support form in FSA’s Partner Connect Help Center. To submit a question, please enter your name, email address, topic, and question. When submitting a question, please select the topic “FSA Ask-A-FED/Policy.”