Federal Student Aid has published and updated several portions of the 2024-2025 Federal Student Aid Handbook.
What has changed so far?
- Volume 5 – Withdrawals and the Return of Title IV Funds is now available on the FSA Knowledge Center. This volume discusses overpayments, which occur when the student receives more aid than they were eligible to receive. One kind of overpayment, traditionally called an over award, results from changes in the student’s aid package; a second occurs when a student withdraws. This volume covers how a school should respond when a student withdraws.
Were there any additional updates?
- Volume 1 – Student Eligibility, Chapter 1: Addresses an error in the description of the two methods a school can use to calculate the pace at which a student is progressing, for SAP assessment purposes. The two correct methods are (1) dividing the total number of hours the student has successfully completed by the total number they have attempted, or (2) determining the number of hours that the student should have completed by the evaluation point in order to complete the program within the maximum timeframe.
- Volume 4 – Processing Aid and Managing FSA Funds, Chapter 2: In the section “When Schools Can’t Make Interim Disbursements,” FSA provided updates to the temporary flexibilities around interim disbursements to align with guidance provided in the Electronic Announcement (GEN-24-55) “2024-25 FAFSA: Update on Processing Paper FAFSA Forms, Implementing School-Initiated Corrections, and Temporary Changes to Process for Reporting Disbursements to Provide Institutional Flexibility”.
- Volume 4 – Processing Aid and Managing FSA Funds, Chapter 3: Under “Interim Disbursements – School Responsibility,” FSA provided updates to the temporary flexibilities around interim disbursements to align with guidance provided in the Electronic Announcement (GEN-24-55) “2024-25 FAFSA: Update on Processing Paper FAFSA Forms, Implementing School-Initiated Corrections, and Temporary Changes to Process for Reporting Disbursements to Provide Institutional Flexibility.”