Education Department Requests Public Comments on Proposed Federal Work-Study Data Collection
March 16, 2023
Jill Desjean
On Tuesday the Department of Education (ED) opened a 60-day comment period on a proposed new information collection by which institutions will be required to report individual students’ Federal Work-Study (FWS) earnings through the Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) system. While previous mention of this new reporting requirement referred only to collecting the student’s calendar year FWS earnings, the documents published this week indicate that several additional FWS-related fields will be required for 2024-25.
For background, ED developed this new reporting process because of two FAFSA changes made by Congress in the FAFSA Simplification Act. The first change prohibits ED from asking additional questions beyond a list specified in Section 483(a)(5), where FWS earnings are not included. The second change, in Section 483(a)(2)(F), requires ED to “take steps necessary” to collect applicants’ FWS earnings data without adding a question to the FAFSA, “including by collecting such information from institutions.”
