Office of Postsecondary Education - U.S. Department of Education

66908 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 209 / Friday, October 29, 2010 / Rules and RegulationsWReier-Aviles on DSKGBLS3C1PROD with RULES2verification criteria, or adopt early thenew criteria.Discussion: While institutions willneed to wait for the receipt of the ISIRbefore requesting specific verificationdocumentation from applicants, we donot envision that this will substantiallydelay the time required for applicants tocomplete verification. During the earlyyears of implementation of the targetedapproach to verification, there will bestability in the FAFSA information theSecretary selects from year to year. Forexample, we would retain the five itemsincluded in the current regulations andsupplement them as needed. However,it is unlikely that an applicant wouldhave to verify all five data elements.We will publish in the FederalRegister the set of potential verificationitems the Department intends to verifyfor an upcoming award year four to sixmonths prior to the start of theapplication processing year (January 1,2012 for the 2012–13 award year) to giveinstitutions time to modify theirsystems. The maximum number of itemsthat could be selected for verification inany given year is the entire list of itemswe plan to publish in the FederalRegister notice for that year. Becausethe selection of verification items for aparticular award year will be basedupon a sophisticated statistical analysisof prior year and other relevant data, wedo not anticipate the Federal Registernotice providing multi-year selectioncriteria, nor, for the same reason, do weintend to solicit public comments on theverification items we select.To verify an applicant’s FAFSAinformation that overlaps twoprocessing years, the institution mustdetermine which award year’s EFC willbe used and apply the verificationcriteria established for that award year.Changes: None.Comment: Various commentersexpressed concern that the newapproach for targeting items forverification will unfairly affecttraditionally black, community, andcareer colleges. One commenterrequested that we not use theverification process to target lowincomedemographic groups and thatwe consider some kind of relief for thesegroups regarding discrepancies ininformation under § 668.16(f). Anothercommenter questioned whether the newapproach for targeting items forverification could be seen as a means ofprofiling applicants.Discussion: Historically theDepartment has used verification tofocus on those FAFSAs that are likely toinclude errors that will result inincorrect awards. It is not our intent tosingle out any demographic populationor a particular type of institution; rather,our goal is to continue to select forverification FAFSA information thatmost likely needs to be corrected.As stated earlier, § 668.16(f) requiresan institution to resolve discrepanciesin the information it receives fromdifferent sources and these regulationsunder subpart E will not change thisrequirement.Changes: None.Comment: One commenter asked ifverification should be required when astudent appeals for a professionaljudgment change to the cost ofattendance.Discussion: We do not plan to add tothe list of verification exclusions in§ 668.54(b) students who request aprofessional judgment change.Changes: None.Comment: Several commenters statedthat an exclusion from verificationcould be granted when the student orparent used the IRS Data RetrievalProcess to supply income and tax dataon the FAFSA.Discussion: Section 668.57(a)(2) of thenew regulations codifies ourdetermination that in instances when anapplicant or parent is required to havehis or her AGI, taxes paid, or incomeearned from work verified, theinstitution may consider as acceptabledocumentation the information reportedby the student on the FAFSA andreported to the institution on the ISIR ifthe Secretary has identified those itemsas having come from the IRS and ashaving not been changed. The Secretarywill so indicate by a flag on the ISIR thatthe information came directly from theIRS and was not changed. There will beseparate flags for the student’sinformation and, if applicable, for theparents’ information.Changes: None.Comment: One commenter expressedconcern that students will be confusedand will miss the verificationinformation on their SAR. Thecommenter stated that the verificationworksheet will not work anymorebecause not all items will be used foreach student and asked if institutionswill need to develop their owninterchangeable forms that will list onlythose items an applicant or parent mustverify.Discussion: Institutions have alwaysbeen able and will continue to be ableto develop and use their ownverification worksheets as long as itcaptures the essential verification items.Institutions could create a single formwith all the verification criteria for thecoming award year and select for eachstudent the pertinent items, or theycould modify their form so that eachVerDate Mar2010 14:10 Oct 28, 2010 Jkt 223001 PO 00000 Frm 00078 Fmt 4701 Sfmt 4700 E:\FR\FM\29OCR2.SGM 29OCR2student receives an individualizedrequest for documentation. We willwork with the community to determineif there still is a need for a Departmentdevelopedverification worksheet, and,if so, how it should be formatted.Changes: None.Comment: One organization requestedthat we create unique codes on the ISIRthat correspond with each verificationitem so that institutions can automatetheir correspondence with applicantsand other processes. Anothercommenter suggested that commentsincluded on the SAR should beexpanded to assist the applicant insending the documentation to verify thespecific items selected for verification tothe institution he or she is seeking toattend.Discussion: As suggested by thecommenters, we will include on eachapplicant’s ISIR item specific flags thatwill indicate which items need to beverified. We will also providenotification to the applicant on theStudent Aid Report (SAR) of the need tohave information verified.Changes: None.Comment: One commenter asked thatthe Department be responsible forcompleting verification and that theDepartment report to institutions whenan applicant’s aid can be disbursed.Discussion: The commenter’s requesthas been suggested before, and we havedetermined that most institutions arenot interested in the Departmentperforming verification and would,notwithstanding the workload, prefer towork with students directly.Changes: None.Acceptable Documentation(§ 668.57(a)(2), (a)(4)(ii)(A), (a)(5), (a)(7),and (d))Comment: One commenter suggestedthat, for applicants and parents whohave not filed their taxes prior to fillingout the FAFSA and who indicate thatthey will be filing, the CPS shouldautomatically draw down the IRS dataand send a reprocessed ISIR, once theapplicant files the required tax returns.A commenter noted that the IRS DataRetrieval Process would not benefitapplicants and their families whocomplete the FAFSA (using estimatedincome) prior to completing theirFederal income tax return in order tomeet various State aid deadlines. Onecommenter asked whether dataretrieved from the IRS can be used tomake corrections to a FAFSA if the IRSData Retrieval Process was not used tocomplete the original FAFSA. In thissituation, the commenter asked whetherthe corrected data would be consideredverified.