Department of Education

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We recently blogged about Public Citizen, Inc.’s petition to the Department of Education requesting the Department to adopt a rule requiring schools to agree, as a condition of receiving Title IV assistance under the Higher Education Act, not to include pre-dispute arbitration agreements in enrollment or other agreements with students.  The ED now appears to be giving serious consideration to such a ban.… Continue Reading

The Department of Education has published a notice in the Federal Register extending the period for comments to be submitted on its plans to create a new Web site by July 1, 2016 for students and borrowers “to file complaints and provide feedback about federal student loan lenders, servicers, collection agencies, and institutions of higher education.” … Continue Reading

The Department of Education has published a notice in the Federal Register inviting comments on its plans to create a new Web site by July 1, 2016 for students  and borrowers to file complaints about federal student loans.  The creation of the new complaint system was mandated by a Presidential Memorandum titled the “Student Aid Bill of Rights,” issued in March 2015. … Continue Reading

This past May, we wrote about the $60 million Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) settlement announced by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Education (ED) with a major student loan servicer and expressed our concern that the settlement could be seen as changing the rules for when all servicers must reduce the interest rate on a loan to a servicemember to 6 percent. … Continue Reading

Republican Senator Mike Crapo, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, sent a letter last week to Department of Education (ED) Secretary Arne Duncan to raise several concerns with the ED’s Title IV rulemaking efforts.  Earlier this year, the ED engaged in negotiated rulemaking, with the CFPB among the those participating in support of the rulemaking. … Continue Reading

We recently commented that financial institutions offering financial products to college students, including debit or prepaid cards, under agreements with colleges should be planning now for the possible advent of new restrictions from the Department of Education (ED) on their practices and agreement terms, including the distinct possibility of public disclosure of the agreements themselves. … Continue Reading

As we reported last month, the Department of Education (DOE), with active CFPB participation, is currently engaged in a negotiated rulemaking process that is considering, among other things, revisions to the DOE’s Title IV’s cash management rules (34 CFR 668, Subpart K), including those relating to acceptable methods of disbursement of eligible Title IV funds to students (34 CFR 668.164). … Continue Reading

The Financial Aid Shopping Sheet prepared by the CFPB and the Department of Education will now receive its litmus test.  Last week, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced in a blog post on the DOE’s web site that more than 500 colleges and universities have agreed to use the Shopping Sheet for financial aid awarded during the 2013-2014 school year. … Continue Reading

Recycling the “Know Before You Owe” theme of its mortgage loan disclosure project, the CFPB has launched a new student loan project on its web site which it describes as the product of a partnership between the CFPB and the U.S. Department of Education.

The CFPB is looking for feedback on what is actually a draft financial aid offer form, which it calls a “financial aid shopping sheet,” that a college or university would provide to a student who has applied for financial aid.… Continue Reading