Create a Policies and Procedures Manual to Comply with Federal Regulations

January 24, 2011

Include these items in a policies and procedures manual

To create a policies and procedures manual that helps your institution comply with federal financial aid requirements, Eileen O'Leary, assistant vice president of student financial services at Stonehill College, and Bernie Pekala, director of student financial strategies at Boston College, recommend that you include these items:

• Introduction - purpose and philosophy.
• Administrative organization.
• Financial aid forms.
• Student consumer information.
• Applications and forms.
• File review.
• Student cost of attendance.
• Awarding and packaging.
• Professional judgment.
• Disbursements.
• Satisfactory academic progress.
• Return of Title IV funds.
• Institutional refunds.
• Title IV fraud.

Follow these best practices to create a manual

Keep these tips in mind to create a policies and procedures manual that helps your institution comply
with federal financial aid requirements:

• Plan to create the manual over time.
• Get ideas and templates from colleagues and associations.
• Engage staff members in the project and share the work.
• Bring other divisions, such as the academics, into the process when the policies and procedures
  will impact that area.
• Ask your campus legal counsel to weigh in on complex issues that involve multiple departments.
• Consult with senior management to make sure someone is responsible for compliance if you work
  at a small institution that does not have legal counsel on campus.

Contact

For more information, contact Communications and Media Relations at 508-565-1321.