The Office of Postsecondary Education maintains a website containing Q&As pertaining to the Program Integrity final regulations that were published on October 29, 2010. The following Q&A was recently posted to the verification portion of this website.
QUESTION: If an institution decides to update a student’s marital status, must it first complete verification if the student had been selected for verification under the current marital status?
ANSWER: No. This is not a case of an institution having to perform verification before making professional judgment changes to the FAFSA. If an institution determines that updating a student’s marital status is warranted—i.e., necessary to address an inequity or to reflect more accurately the applicant’s ability to pay—it should change the student’s marital status and other relevant data first and then complete verification of the updated application, which would include verifying the information of the student’s spouse or parents, as appropriate. [Guidance issued 09/03/2014]
For more information, please visit http://www2.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2009/integrity-qa.html, click on the applicable topics, and look for the “new” icon next to the Q&As that have been added.
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