Legislation and Regulation Training
Pueblo Community College |TRIO Student Support Services
Module 5
Participant Eligibility
Module 5
TRIO Training: Participant
Eligibility
Legislation and Regulation Training
Pueblo Community College |TRIO Student Support Services
Module 5
Participant Eligibility
Table of Contents
Purpose of Participant Eligibility ................................................................................................... 1
Legislation and Participant Eligibility ........................................................................................... 1
Regulations and Participant Eligibility .......................................................................................... 3
Eligibility..................................................................................................................................... 3
Definitions and Assurances ......................................................................................................... 3
Other Requirements..................................................................................................................... 4
Tracking .......................................................................................................................................... 4
Recordkeeping and Retention of Records ....................................................................................... 5
Documentation Requirements and the Annual Performance Report.............................................. 5
Annual Performance Report Sections ......................................................................................... 6
Recording Services ...................................................................................................................... 6
Assignment ...................................................................................................................................... 6
Assignment Checklist.................................................................................................................. 6
Discussion – First Generation Discussion Item Scenario ....................................................... 6
Table of Figures
Figure 1: Independent Student Definition...................................................................................... 1
Figure 2: Need for Academic Support ........................................................................................... 2
Figure 3: Participant File Analysis Form ....................................................................................... 4
Legislation and Regulation Training
Pueblo Community College |TRIO Student Support Services
Module 5
Participant Eligibility
Purpose of Participant Eligibility
The purpose of this module is to increase your understanding of the requirements for
documenting participant eligibility. Documentation required by legislation, regulations, and
EDGAR is examined for the following:
Participant eligibility, including need for academic support;
Services provided to participants;
Participant outcomes, including each participant’s specific educational progress; and
Annul Performance Report.
After gaining a firm understanding of the requirements for documenting participant eligibility,
you will be asked to review a case study participant file for completeness and accuracy. As
you read through the material consider the following:
A freshman applies to a SSS project who’s natural parents do not have four-year degrees.
However, he has regularly resided with his mother who married an individual with a
bachelor’s degree when the prospective participant was 15 years of age.
Legislation and Participant Eligibility
A project’s participant documentation requirements are determined by the population it is
authorized to serve. Congress identifies the individuals eligible to be served by a SSS project in
both the umbrella and SSS sections of the legislation.
The umbrella section of the
legislation,
402A(a),
requires that a program identify
qualified participants from
disadvantaged backgrounds.
Low-income and first generation
status are common requirements
across all TRIO programs such
as SSS, UB, TS, EOC, and
McNair. The umbrella section
of the legislation specifies the
documentation required to
determine if a student has low
income status; it also defines the
terms first generation college
student and low-income
individual. Finally, it also
clarifies a veteran’s eligibility.
Independent Student Definition
Section 480(d) of the HEA of 1965, as amended
(d) INDEPENDENT STUDENT – The term
“independent,” when used with respect to a student, means
any individual who –
(1) is 24 years of age or older by December 31 of the
award year;
(2) is an orphan or ward of the court or was a ward of
the court until the individual reached the age of 18;
(3) is a veteran of the Armed Forces of the United
Sates (as defined in subsection (c)(1));
(4) is a graduate or professional student;
(5) is a married individual;
(6) has legal dependents other than a spouse; or
(7) is a student for whom a financial aid administrator
makes a documented determination of
independence by a reason of other unusual
circumstances.
Requirements for low income
participants are first addressed in Figure 1: Independent Student Definition
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Legislation and Regulation Training
Pueblo Community College |TRIO Student Support Services
Module 5
Participant Eligibility
the umbrella section of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA),
Title IV, Part A, Subpart
2, Chapter 1, 402A(e), which provides options for acceptable documentation. Note that there is
an exception for an independent student as defined in Figure 1. The only change in
documentation criteria is that an independent student may verify low income with a signed
statement rather than requiring a parent or legal guardian signature.
The umbrella section further addresses eligibility criteria by defining first generation college
student and low-income individual in
402A(f). Note that even though first generation is
defined, documentation for first generation status is not specified.
The program specific legislation requires the grantee to assure that persons participating in the
project meet additional requirements. Under section
402D(c)(1-3) Requirements for
Approval of Applications, Congress mandates:
No less than 2/3 of the participants be individuals with disabilities, or low-income and
first generation;
The remaining participants be individuals who are low-income or first generation or with
disabilities; and
Not less than 1/3 of the participants with disabilities be low-income.
Need for Academic Support
A compilation of Legislative and Regulatory citations relating to grantee responsibility in
addressing participant need for Student Support Services projects.
Citation
Requireme nt
“Require that there be a
determination by the institution,
with respect to each participant
in such project that the
participant has a need for
academic support in order to
pursue successfully a program
of education beyond secondary
school.”
Citation
646.21(c)(3)
Plan of operation
nt
402D(c)(4) Requirements for
Approval of Applications
Requireme
Reg ulations
Legis lation
Determination
“The plan for assessing each
individual participant’s need for
specific services and monitoring
his or her academic progress of
participants at the institution to
ensure satisfactory academic
progress.”
Eligibility
Not addressed
646.3(c)
Who is eligible to participate in
an Student Support Services
Project?
[Participant] “has a need for
academic support, as
determined by the grantee, in
order to pursue successfully a
postsecondary educational
program.”
Figure 2: Need for Academic Support
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Documentation
Not addressed
646.32(b)(2)
Recordkeeping
For each participant, a grantee
shall maintain participant
records that show “the grantee’s
basis for determining the
academic need for each
participant.”
Legislation and Regulation Training
Pueblo Community College |TRIO Student Support Services
Module 5
Participant Eligibility
Section 402D(c)(4) of the legislation also requires the institution to determine “that the
participant has a need for academic support in order to pursue successfully education beyond
secondary school.” Please note academic support is also referred to as “academic need” in 646.7
(c) and 646.32 (b)(2). It is important to note that in other participant eligibility criteria, the
legislation both defined and, in the case of low-income status, established the documentation
required. However, the legislation clearly states need for academic support is determined by the
institution, therefore making it the institution’s responsibility to define need for academic
support. If the institution does not have a definition of what constitutes a need for academic
support, or if there are areas of need the institution’s policy does not address, then the project
must define (or elaborate on) need for academic support criteria. For a comprehensive look at
the legislative and regulatory requirements regarding need for academic support, see Figure 2.
Additionally,
section 402D(c)(5) of the legislation requires participants be enrolled or
accepted for enrollment at your institution. And the final consideration of the legislation is found
in
section 402D(c)(6). This addresses the institution’s efforts in providing financial
assistance to participants. Although this is not a participant eligibility criterion, the project must
be able to document how it fulfilled the requirement for each participant.
As evidenced by the above citations, the legislation provides a foundation for documenting
eligibility for the other governing documents to build upon.
Regulations and Participant Eligibility
The requirements for participant documentation are further addressed in the SSS Regulations.
Eligibility:
34 CFR 646.3 identifies students who are eligible to participate in a SSS
project, expanding on the term qualified found in the legislation by providing a list of
requirements to consider. These requirements include:
Citizenship;
Enrollment;
Need for academic support; and
Low-income, first generation, and disabilities status.
Definitions and Assurances:
Section 646.7 of the SSS Regulations gives a list of key
terms that apply to an SSS project, along with their definitions. These definitions directly relate
to the areas a project must document for each participant. Of primary concern to SSS projects
are the following definitions:
Need for academic support
Individual with disabilities
Participant
Sufficient financial assistance
Section 646.11 of the SSS regulations again reiterates from the legislation the “2/3 1/3”
assurances required of the institution for the SSS population served, stating that it must be
included in the application.
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Legislation and Regulation Training
Pueblo Community College |TRIO Student Support Services
Module 5
Participant Eligibility
Other Requirements: Other requirements a grantee must meet can be found in
section
646.32 of the SSS Regulations. Section 646.32(a) and (b) both have implications for student
record keeping. Section (a) discusses participant eligibility in regards to revalidation, lowincome status, and TRIO services received. Section (b) specifies that records must be
maintained to document eligibility, academic need, services provided, and the performance of
the participant. These requirements speak to additional requisites regarding participant eligibility
and correlate directly to the type of documentation a project must maintain and for how long a
project must track participant progress. The emphasis on participant eligibility documentation
requirements is due to the fact that over the years the ED has found participant eligibility is not
adequately documented.
Please note that need for academic support is one of the eligibility criteria of 646.3 and yet this
regulation in
646.32(b)(2) specifically reemphasizes that the basis for determining this need
must be documented. Projects are advised to both define need for academic support and describe
how it will be documented. Many postsecondary institutions have a standardized academic
needs assessment that may be useful as a guide. The need statement in the proposal is another
resource if your project has not established a definition. Ensure your project has developed
academic need criteria of its own to implement (this should have been taken care of when we
developed our Intake Matrix).
Sections 646.32(a) and (b) not only emphasize the need to document eligibility; they also stress
the importance of maintaining documentation of services provided.
To summarize, the areas of student documentation
may be grouped into four main categories:
Eligibility, including academic need;
Financial aid;
Service provided; and
Performance and progress.
The Participant Documentation Table in Figure 3
is located in this packet within the Participant
Document section.
Figure 3: Participant File Analysis Form
Tracking
Section 646.32(b)(4) of the SSS Regulations addresses the recordkeeping requirements a
grantee must meet, and is the first section of the regulations which speaks to a project’s
obligation to track its participants’ progress. This citation states records must be kept on “the
performance and progress of each participant by cohort for the duration of the participant’s
attendance at the grantee institution.” Prior Experience criteria cited in section 646.22(b)(1) also
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Legislation and Regulation Training
Pueblo Community College |TRIO Student Support Services
Module 5
Participant Eligibility
includes the extent to which participants “persisted toward completion of the academic programs
in which they were enrolled” as part of its assessment criteria.
In addition,
EDGAR 74.51(d)(1), 75.590, and 75.732 set forth the expectation of the
grantee to obtain and maintain sufficient data to show the impact of the project on its
participants. Since every SSS project has an objective related to enrollment and completion of
postsecondary programs, projects need to track their participants’ progress.
The
Annual Performance Report guidelines also stipulate the amount of time that program
graduates need to be tracked. A project must track the progress of prior year participants for as
long as they are enrolled at the grantee institution. To ensure that the data collected on prior year
participants is accurate and complete, there are two categories of prior year participants:
Prior-year participants still enrolled at the grantee institutions; and
Prior-year participants not enrolled at the grantee institution.
Recordkeeping and Retention of Records
EDGAR also addresses documentation and recordkeeping. EDGAR requires records be kept to
demonstrate compliance with program requirements [
75.731] and to document performance
[
74.732(a) and (b)]. The ED staff, when conducting an on-site review, will compare the
information in the performance report with source records. The retention and access
requirements for records are regulated by
section 74.53 of EDGAR, which states that all
records will be retained for “three years from the date of the submission of the final expenditure
report.”
More simply stated, this means that records must be retained for three years after the end of the
final grant cycle. So, for example, if a grant is on a four year grant cycle, the project’s records
must be retained for three years after the end of the fourth year of the grant cycle. Keep in mind
that a project must also follow the grantee’s requirements for retaining records. State-funded
institution may be subject to state record retention policies. Check with the institution to verify
those requirements.
Documentation Requirements and the Annual Performance Report
Keeping documentation on project participants not only satisfies the requirements of a project’s
funded proposal, it also enables the project to efficiently complete the Annual Performance
Report (APR). Per EDGAR 74.51(b), completion of the APR is required 90 calendar days after
the end of the grant year, and covers the entire previous academic year. (Often, however, the
ED includes Attachment B, Special Grant Terms and Conditions for Financial and Performance
Reports, with the GAN. This attachment will typically specify an APR due date the ED provides
at a later time.) The Department of Education uses the aggregate data provided in the report to
assess a grantee’s progress in meeting its approved goals and objectives, as well as determining
prior experience points.
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Legislation and Regulation Training
Pueblo Community College |TRIO Student Support Services
Module 5
Participant Eligibility
Annual Performance Report Sections: Of the four sections that comprise the report, three of
the four sections directly relate to project participant data that projects document.
Section II of the APR provides the ED with the verification of the number funded to be served
and the prior experience standard objectives. It is here that your project reports the extent to
which your project achieved each of its objectives, as measured by the numbers and percentages
of eligible participants in the areas of persistence, good academic standing, graduation and,
where applicable, transfer. Projects that began prior to 2005 and notified the ED that they would
be using their new objectives must complete this section. If they did not notify the ED that they
would be using their new objectives these projects would not complete Section II.
Some of the data required in the APR is not information the SSS legislation or regulations
require a project to maintain. Therefore, your project will want to gather and maintain this
additional data within your student documentation files. One such area is demographics, which
Section III of the APR requires for each project participant. The demographic areas
include: Participant Distribution by Ethnic Background, Gender, and College Grade Level.
As with Section II of the APR, Section IV also provides information on project performance
outcomes that the ED uses to determine the extent to which your project achieved each of its
objectives. However, Section IV is used by those projects that began prior to 2005 and did not
notify the ED they would be using their new objectives.
Recording Services: Packaged programs can be easy to utilize for managing data as needed for
the APR and for project operation. A couple of the packaged programs currently in use in SSS
projects include Blumen and Student Access.
Assignment
Assignment Checklist:
Discussion – First Generation Discussion Item Scenario: A freshman has applied to your
SSS project. Neither of the student’s natural parents have four-year degrees. He has regularly
resided with his mother who married an individual with a bachelor’s degree when the
prospective participant was 15 years of age. Would you consider him to be first generation?
How do you document your decision in his file? Defend your answer.
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