Agency Liaison Report
Elizabeth V. McDuffie

Florida Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA)
Theresa Antworth

The Florida Department of Education, Office of Student Financial Assistance, Scholarship and Grants Office is working to complete the 2004-05 academic year with successful expenditures and data in programs with current year appropriations.

The 2005 Florida Legislative Session made very minor modifications to existing programs and created no new programs. The funding for the 2005-06 academic year has been approved by Governor Bush and awards an approximate 13% increase to student financial aid for a total budget of $527 million. The minor statutory recommendations to current law included (1) program enhancements for our military students participating in the Operation Iraqi Freedom, and (2) recognition of the Advanced International Certification of Education (AICE), an acceleration curriculum, to meet high school eligibility criteria in our merit scholarship program.

Georgia Student Finance Commission
Shelley Nickel

Georgia provides $118 million to college students with financial need
Last year, the State of Georgia awarded students with financial need more than $118 million in scholarships and grants through the HOPE and LEAP programs.

GAcollege411.org Enhancements
In February 2005, Georgia launched GAcollege411.org, an online resource that helps students plan, apply, and pay for college. The site features career exploration, SAT and ACT preparation, information about 100 Georgia colleges, and financial aid resources. This summer, another important component will be added. Through GAcollege411.org, students will be able to apply online to all of the institutions listed on the site, including public and private colleges and universities and public technical colleges. In coming months, electronic transmittal of high school transcripts will be added to the site’s capabilities.

New Service Loan Promotes Careers in Social Work
GSFC is pleased to announce a new pilot Service Cancelable Loan Program designed to attract and retain qualified individuals into the field of social work. GSFC created the program in conjunction with the Department of Human Resources in response to Governor Sonny Perdue's commitment to add 500 new social work positions in the state. The program will be piloted with Georgia State University and will provide $100,000 for service cancelable loans to students pursuing a bachelor’s degree in social work.

HERO Grant
Earlier this year, the State of Georgia enacted a law creating the Georgia HERO (Helping Educate Reservists and their Offspring) Grant, an education grant for certain military personnel and their children. Recipients must be members of the Georgia National Guard, or members of a reserve component of the armed forces of the United States, who are deployed overseas for active service in a combat zone for a consecutive period of at least 181 days. Children of such service members are also eligible for this program. The grant award is $2,000 per year for up to four years of study at an eligible college in Georgia.

Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority
Michael Morgan

Thanks to KASFAA President Heather Boutell for attending the February Board meeting and reporting on the KASFAA task force created to work with Senator Tim Shaughnessy to make recommendations for any needed changes to KEES. KEES legislation moving administrative responsibility from CPE to KHEAA and changing reporting requirements for student grades was sponsored by Representative Tanya Pullin and passed by the 2005 Kentucky General Assembly. This is just one more example of how our working together can improve our services to students and schools.

ZipDECISION for Parent Borrowers
Parents using a KHEAA Origination Services lender can now perform an immediate credit pre-approval online. ZipDECISION is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Parent borrowers may access ZipDECISION in several ways.

Student Aid Advisory Committee
The KHEAA Student Aid Advisory Committee, comprised of financial aid officers from the public, private, and proprietary sectors, met on March 31 at KHEAA. CPE Vice President for Finance Sandra Woodley discussed the forthcoming Affordability Study, a research project sponsored by CPE and KHEAA that will involve data collection from Kentucky financial aid and institutional research offices. Other topics included a KASFAA update; a review of phase one of Zip Access, the redesigned student aid system; borrower benefits; GoHigherKY.org; state and federal legislation; and the status of school-based web services. The next meeting is scheduled for November 10, 2005, at KHEAA. The committee asked KHEAA to consider providing a notice to financial aid offices regarding the most recent PLUS pre-approvals and removing ISIR comment code edits regarding applicants’ citizenship.

KEES Data Report
KHEAA recently released the “2003 Kentucky Educational Excellence Scholarship Data Report.” The standardized 2003 KEES information (presented by school, school district, county, postsecondary institution, and several other variables) is designed to address the most commonly asked KEES questions. (KHEAA will soon publish 2004 KEES data.) The electronic version of the report is available at www.kheaa.com/serv_reports.html. If you have questions about this report, please contact KHEAA’s Policy Analysis group at (502) 696-7471 or mletteer@kheaa.com.

KAPT Board Governance
House Bill 184, passed by the 2005 General Assembly, transfers board governance of Kentucky’s Affordable Prepaid Tuition (KAPT) to the KHEAA Board of Directors effective July 1, 2005. KHEAA currently handles daily administration of the program.

Use of KAPT Benefits
Through March, 119 KAPT beneficiaries had used $579,000 in KAPT benefits for the 2004-2005 academic year. KAPT expects approximately 150 KAPT beneficiaries to use benefits for the 2005-2006 academic year. Financial aid and business officers can access student eligibility and matriculation information through KAPT’s secure eligibility website at www.prepaidtuition.com. For information on using the website, e-mail Jo Carole Ellis at jcellis@kheaa.com or call (502) 696-7442.

KAPT Lawsuit
House Bill 267, the state budget bill, requires KAPT to return $13.7 million from the KAPT Program Fund to the General Fund. In December 2004, the KAPT Board approved the transfer of $13.7 million from the Unclaimed Property Fund to the KAPT Program Fund to eliminate the program’s actuarial deficit. On March 30, the Attorney General filed a lawsuit claiming the return of the funds required by the budget bill is unconstitutional. On April 7, the court approved a temporary injunction barring the return of the $13.7 million until the court rules on the lawsuit. The status of the lawsuit will not affect those students currently using KAPT benefits. At the April 11 meeting, the KHEAA Board directed staff to respond to the lawsuit by April 20.

Interest Rates Reduced
The interest rate for conversion scholarship/loan programs was reduced from 12% to 6%, effective April 1. Participants in the following programs will benefit from this regulatory change:

Zip Access
The certifier piece of Zip Access for the Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship, Teacher Scholarship, and Early Childhood Development Scholarship programs was implemented on Saturday, April 2. This feature allows appropriate personnel to certify student applications for each scholarship program online and eliminate the paper certification process.

GoHigherKY.org
GoHigherKY.org continues to receive lots of hits—nearly 4.8 million from June 2004 when it went online through the end of March. Nearly 5,000 accounts have been opened and over 3,700 requests for additional information have been received.

30 Seconds of Fame Competition
KHEAA and The Student Loan People presented a $1,000 check to Fleming County High School on April 13 for taking first place in our statewide “30 Seconds of Fame” competition. Over 60 teams competed in developing an ad campaign for GoHigher.KY.org! The judges were overwhelmed by the enthusiastic response of high schools across Kentucky. Our judges were especially impressed with the talent of the Fleming County team’s creative entry using talking computers to guide students to the Go Higher website. Fleming County’s winning entry will educate Kentuckians about Go Higher.org’s online tools and resources to help students and families learn how to plan and pay for college or technical training.

The College Track Series
KHEAA/KHESLC Executive Director Joe McCormick took part in a three-part series on college access in Kentucky. The first show of the series, “The College Track 101: Who's In, Who's Out,” featured Dr. McCormick, CPE Vice President of Academic Affairs Jim Applegate, and KDE Commissioner Gene Wilhoit as panelists and aired March 22 on Kentucky Educational Television (KET) 1.

North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority
Elizabeth V. McDuffie

FAFSA Day
The fourth annual FAFSA Day attracted over 1,350 students seeking assistance in completing their FAFSA, a 40% increase over the prior year. Host sites reported a total of over 300 volunteers assisting the students and their families. FAFSA Day is co-sponsored by NCASFAA and the State Education Assistance Authority.

Counselor Internships
Seventeen counselors have been chosen this summer to receive paid internships in college financial aid offices on 12 campuses. Internships range in length from three to six weeks and participants learn more about financial aid and increase their abilities to help their future high school students.

CFNC Update
Over 800,000 accounts have been established on the CFNC site and over 107,000 admissions applications were sent between August 1, 2004 and May 31, 2005. In addition, the Department of Public Instruction is rapidly expanding the implementation of NCWISE software into the public schools in NC, which will enable students to request electronic transcripts to be sent to the colleges within minutes of the request. An estimated 50% of the counties will be operational by December with the remaining due in 2006.

New ads strategies are targeting first generation students to further support North Carolina’s goal of increasing the college-going rate. New TV ads have been developed and bus “wraps” (message applied to outside of bus) are being “rolled” out!

Program Growth
Additional programs are being contemplated by the NC General Assembly for implementation in 2005. Most of the programs are workforce development programs as NC attempts to address the teacher and nurse shortage. More information will be forthcoming when the General Assembly adjourns.

South Carolina Tuition Grants Update
Edward Shannon

The SC Tuition Grants Program is a “need-based” grants program for eligible South Carolina residents attending in-state, independent colleges on a full-time basis. During the 2004-2005 fiscal year, the SC Tuition Grants Program awarded a total of $28.6 million to 12,125 SC students attending the 20 participating SC independent colleges. The average dollar grant amount will be $2,285 and will cover 15.6% of the $14,698 average tuition and fee charge at a SC independent college for the 2004-2005 year.

The SC General Assembly is completing its work on the 2005-2006 state budget. Funding for the SC Tuition Grants Program in 2005-2006 is expected to be similar to the $28.6 million level of the current year. The maximum grant approved for the 2005-2006 school year is $2,600.

A new feature beginning in the 2005-2006 award year is the use of electronic award notifications in place of the normal paper award letters. The SC Education Assistance Authority, the state agency governing the SC Student Loan Corporation, is providing the service at no cost to the SC Tuition Grants Commission. The experience thus far has been that 85% of the eligible students have e-mail addresses (taken from the FAFSA) to which award notifications have been sent. The 15% without e-mail addresses are mailed paper award notifications. The savings to the SC Tuition Grants Commission from postage, paper, and employee work time is significant.

Merit-based programs continue to be highly emphasized in South Carolina. However, statistics reveal that of the 12,125 independent college students receiving the “need-based” SC Tuition Grant, only 40% of these students qualify for merit-based aid from the State of South Carolina. Efforts are being made by the SC General Assembly to increase funding of the “need-based” programs while at the same time continue the funding levels of the merit-based programs.