Compliance

Prior Year Participants

The Department of Education mandates that programs track served students as long as they are enrolled in the institution, even if they are no longer receiving services from the program.  If students leave the institution for a year and come back, the Department of Education wants those students to appear on Section 5 of the Annual Performance Report.  With students no longer following traditional enrollment patterns, this scenario becomes so common that it can be difficult to track.  This is especially difficult for 2-year colleges where it it quite common for students to take classes, leave and then return.  To fully comply with this regulation, most programs would have to go through every student who was ever served and see if they were enrolled for that semester.  This task would get longer and longer each semester.  It is no wonder that most programs are not compliant with this regulation. 

Estudias solves this problem by keeping a record every student that was ever served and checking it against Colleague data.  If a student re-enrolls to take one class, Estudias automatically inserts a row in Section 5 of the Annual Performance Report – no manual intervention is needed.  Advisors can easily pull up a list of students who returned each semester even if they weren’t served by the program.
 

Multi-Campus Institutions

Compliance with DOE regulations can be even more difficult in multi-campus institutions where more than one of the campuses has a TRIO-SSS program. In these situations, students may take classes at multiple campuses. Without coordination between the different campuses, students may also receive services from multiple TRIO-SSS programs.  This of great concern to the DOE.  The DOE is very adamant that students do not receive services from multiple TRIO-SSS programs in a batch year.  According to a spokesperson for the Office of Federal TRIO Programs, it is simple: “Schools must take steps to prevent students from receiving services from multiple programs.”  Complying with this regulation would require TRIO directors to coordinate with their peers at other institutions every time a student applies for the program. It is no wonder that most programs are not compliant with this regulation.

Estudias solves this problem by storing all information on a central database. Any TRIO program in the institution using Estudias can see if a student is already being served by another TRIO program, thus ensuring compliance with DOE regulations.

Audit Checks