During the spring of 2019, NASFAA convened the Modernizing Title IV Aid to Encourage and Accommodate Innovation in Higher Education task force as an extension of the Innovative Learning Models task force of 2015. 
As NASFAA states, the objective of the task force was to:
- Meet with experts and pioneers in innovative learning models to better understand current and future trends
- Consider the implications and challenges of administering Title IV aid to these new types of programs under existing statutes and regulations.
- Examine specific Title IV eligibility and compliance barriers to innovation— including but not limited to Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP), Return of Title IV Funds (R2T4), attendance, disbursement schedules, cost of attendance (COA), Pell scheduled award amounts, and annual loan limits.
- Formulate specific policy recommendations that would accommodate these types of programs while protecting the federal investment and providing for program integrity, including proposed statutory changes to be included in the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965.
- Identify potential future development or demonstration projects that would experiment with innovative learning models
The task force came to several conclusions and made recommendations, including but not limited to: having stronger controls so as to prevent under-performing programs from gaining and maintaining their eligibility for Title IV programs, lifting the student record ban, changes to measuring the quantitative component of Satisfactory Academic Progress, and excluding certain student circumstances from the Return to Title IV Funds calculation requirement.
Click here to download the full report.
Source: NASFAA, Modernizing Title IV Aid to Encourage and Accommodate Innovation in Higher Education.
