AwardYear: 1994-1995 Edition: PostSecondary Part: 2 - - The Application Process for Financial Aid SectionNumber: SectionTitle: Using Professional Judgment PageNumbers: 40-42 The use of professional judgment has been expanded to include adjustment of the EFC used to award aid from the Federal Pell Grant Program. (Previously, FAAs could only adjust the need analysis for campus-based aid and the Federal Family Education Loan Programs.) You may use your professional judgment to either increase or decrease one or more of the data elements used to calculate the EFC. The reason must be documented in the student's file and it must relate to that student's special circumstances. Special circumstances are conditions that DIFFERENTIATE an individual student, not conditions that exist for a whole class of students. Thus, adjustments may only be made on a "case-by-case" basis. The FAFSA does not collect information on special circumstances, but a notice in Section H tells applicants to notify the financial aid administrator if they have special circumstances. The FAFSA gives examples of elementary or secondary school tuition, unusual medical or dental expenses, a family member who is a dislocated worker, or other unusual circumstances. Professional judgment is not limited to the situations mentioned, and could include those circumstances that were considered to be "special conditions" in previous school years, such as divorce, separation or the death of a parent or spouse after the application was filed. Note that professional judgment can only be performed on the SAR once the EFC has been calculated. In exercising professional judgment, you may no longer make a direct change to the EFC figure, assessment rates, or allowances; you may only adjust an actual data item. The data item that is changed should reflect the student's special circumstances. For example, if a family member is ill, you might adjust the adjusted gross income to allow for lower earnings in the coming year, or you might adjust assets to indicate that family savings will be expended on medical expenses. Because items like medical expenses and tuition do not appear on the application or the SAR, you need to be familiar with the elements in the formula so your professional judgment changes are made and documented properly. If you make an adjustment for a student who may be eligible for a Federal Pell Grant, the SAR must be used to send the adjusted information back to the FAFSA processor. (If you are using EDE services, you may use the corrections function to make the change electronically--in this case, you will receive the resulting ESAR at the school, but the student will not receive a paper SAR in the mail.) An adjustment to a line item is made just like a correction--the aid administrator reports the adjusted amount on Part 2 of the SAR in the column labeled "The correct answer is:". For instance, if the Adjusted Gross Income is $20,000, but the FAA decides to adjust that figure to $17,000 to take into account unusual medical expenses, the aid administrator would make the following change on the Student Aid Report: [[The illustration on page 41 is currently unavailable for viewing. Please reference your paper document for additional information.]] The FAA must also indicate that an adjustment is being made in the "School Use Only" box. (See the discussion of the "School Use Only" box later in this Part.) If an FAA uses professional judgment to adjust a SAR line item, the resulting EFC must be used consistently for all federal student aid that the school awards to that student. For example, if the aid administrator adjusts the EFC for purposes of awarding the student's Federal Pell Grant, that adjusted EFC must also be used to award aid from the campus-based or FFEL programs. - Other uses of professional judgment The FAA can use professional judgment to adjust the student's cost of attendance to take into account special circumstances. The law also authorizes FAAs to use professional judgment to override the student's reported dependency status to make the student independent. The override may be reported in the "School Use Only" box in Section H of the FAFSA or Correction FAFSA or on Part 2 of the SAR. Note that a separate letter from the FAA attached to the application is not acceptable for the 1994-95 school year. You may only change the student's status from dependent to independent. If your information indicates that an independent student is receiving substantial support from his or her parents, you may adjust one or more of the data elements in the EFC calculation or adjust the cost of attendance to reflect this additional source of financial support. As with adjustments to the EFC, remember that any dependency overrides or adjustments to the student's cost of attendance must be on a "case-by-case" basis and the reason for the adjustment must be documented in the student's file. [[Page 42, entitled, Mastering the School Use Only Box, is currently unavailable for viewing. Please reference this page in the Handbook for additional information.]] |