Colleges Ask Congress to Delay Gainful Employment Deadline
Katherine Knott
June 12, 2024
The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) is calling on Congress to take legislative action and require the Education Department to give colleges until July 2025 to comply with the reporting requirements in the new gainful employment and financial value transparency rule.
The department already pushed back the deadline from July 31 to Oct. 1 earlier this year after colleges said they needed more time to gather and report new program-level information, including the total cost of attendance and the amount of private education loans disbursed to students. Colleges argued that the extension was needed in light of the challenges associated with the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FASFA), which was delayed and has been beset with numerous issues.
While NASFAA appreciated the two-month extension, the association said in a letter to Congress this week that the department didn’t go far enough and has yet to provide all the information that colleges need to comply with the reporting requirements. Financial aid administrators want a one-year extension. The request, NASFAA president Justin Draeger argued, wouldn’t affect the department’s plan to start holding institutions accountable for their outcomes under the rule starting July 1, 2026.
