UNDERSTANDING THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION COMPOSITE SCORE FOR PROPRIETARY INSTITUTIONS
David B, McClintock
April 26, 2024
Institutions of higher education, whether traditional universities or proprietary trade schools, are well familiar with U.S. Department of Education (ED) oversight. Annual filings and notification triggers are par for the course.
For precisely this reason, it’s critical that we understand how the department assesses your finances so that you can prepare for potential issues. When reviewing annual financial statements ED uses the Composite Score Ratio (CSR) as its primary measure of financial health. Triggers in the new Financial Responsibility rules can require an institution to recalculate its CSR mid-year, leading to additional ED financial oversight, monitoring, or other controls. In this article, we break down the basics of the score and how it is calculated.
Proactive schools work with McClintock & Associates to project their CSR prior to their fiscal year end. This article will cover the following topics to help proprietary schools better understand the CSR and how it impacts them. We will cover:
