Non-Attendance and Unofficial Withdrawal
Dalton State College Non-Attendance and Unofficial Withdrawal Policy
Students receiving federal financial assistance, who do not pass any courses and who do not officially withdraw from the College are considered “unofficially withdrawn.” The following procedures are used to determine if students never attend class and/or withdraw unofficially, and to determine repayments due back to aid programs.
Beginning of each term:
- Faculty members are reminded by the Registrar to check class rosters at the end of the initial A/B and C session drop/add periods. Faculty report changes to their class rosters, including students who have never attended class.
- For students enrolled in classes that require attendance, financial aid is held, if not already released to the student, for students not attending class. Students are notified that financial aid is on hold until class attendance can be verified. Students who claim they are attending class(es) may have aid reinstated ONLY if their professor(s) confirm attendance by directly contacting the Enrollment Services or Financial Aid Office (e-mail required). The student’s claim to have attended class, absent positive confirmation from the faculty member, does not constitute confirmation of class attendance.
- After all faculty members have reported to the Registrar, federal aid awards are recalculated for students not attending class(es). Federal awards are adjusted to pay only for classes the student is attending. This adjustment could result in the reduction of aid awarded and/or the loss of grant, scholarship or loan funds. If attendance rosters indicate the student never attended any classes, all federal financial aid is cancelled.
The College returns aid to the financial aid programs and bills the student for funds received for classes never attended. Repayment may be required with funds other than financial aid. If this occurs and the bill remains unpaid for more than 120 days, a third party collection agency will be used and the debtor will also become liable for any additional collection costs associated with the collection of any amount not paid. Students are ineligible for future aid until debt repaid in full.
End of each term:
- The Registrar creates an exception report of all federal financial aid recipients with all "F," "U," "W," "WF," "WU," "UF," and/or "NR" grades, and notifies the Financial Aid Office of students who have unofficially withdrawn.
- Faculty must enter a last date of attendance on the course roster for students who receive a final grade F, U, or UF. If the last date of attendance reported occurred during the 1st week of classes (the 100% drop period) for Parts of term 1, B, C and/or ecore/emajor full-term or part of term 1 or 2 (as allowed by federal regulations), that course will be dropped at 100%.
- Once the withdrawal date is determined, the Financial Aid Office calculates the amount that must be returned to aid programs by the College and the student, in accordance with federal regulations and College policy. For details, see the Return of Title IV Funds policy which follows.
Return of Title IV Funds Policy for Students Receiving Federal Financial Aid at Dalton State College
The Higher Education Amendments of 1998 and the Higher Education Reconciliation Act of 2005 set forth regulations governing the treatment of Title IV funds (Federal Pell Grant, Federal Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant [SEOG], Academic Competitiveness Grant [ACG], National SMART Grant, Federal Subsidized Loan, Federal Unsubsidized Loan, and Federal PLUS) when a student withdraws completely from an institution.
When a student withdraws during a period of enrollment in which he/she has begun attendance and has received federal Title IV financial aid, Dalton State College is required to determine the amount of earned and unearned Title IV aid. A student is eligible to retain the percentage of Title IV aid disbursed or that could have been disbursed that is equal to the percentage of the enrollment period completed by the student (calculated daily). Scheduled breaks of 5 or more consecutive days are excluded. The unearned Title IV aid must be returned to the appropriate federal aid program(s). If the student has completed more than 60% of the enrollment period, no Title IV aid needs to be returned.
Repayment Due to Federal Aid Programs
The following steps are followed when determining the amount of Title IV aid to be returned upon the student’s withdrawal:
- Determine institutional charges and the amount of Title IV (federal aid) disbursed to the student for the semester. Institutional charges include tuition, fees, bookstore and housing charges (Mashburn Hall).
- Determine the percentage of the enrollment period completed by the student. Divide the number of days attended by the number of days in the enrollment period (excluding scheduled breaks of five or more consecutive days). If the calculated percentage exceeds 60%, then the student has earned all the Title IV aid for the enrollment period.
- Calculate the amount of earned and unearned Title IV aid based on the percentage of the enrollment period attended by the student. Returns to State aid are also calculated using Federal Title IV refund policy.
- Return of Title IV funds by the institution and the student. Dalton State College will return unearned Title IV aid up to an amount that is equal to the total allowable institutional charges for the payment period multiplied by the percentage of the Title IV aid that was unearned. The student will be responsible for the balance of unearned Title IV aid. In most cases this will be the amount of federal funds a student received in the form of a refund for non-institutional expenses multiplied by the percentage of Title IV aid that was unearned. If the student’s portion of unearned aid to be returned is from a loan, the student is not immediately required to repay this amount. The terms and conditions of the original repayment agreement will apply. If the student’s portion of unearned aid to be returned is from a grant, Dalton State College invoices the student for his/her unearned portion. The student must repay this amount within 45 days of notification. If he/she doesn’t, the overpayment owed will be referred to the United States Department of Education for collection, and the student will forfeit future eligibility for Title IV or Georgia State financial aid. At this point, the student must work with the Department of Education to resolve the overpayment.
Dalton State will return unearned Title IV funds to federal programs in the following order:
- Federal Unsubsidized Stafford Loan
- Federal Subsidized Stafford Loan
- Federal PLUS Loan
- Federal Pell Grant
- Academic Competitiveness Grant
- National SMART Grant
- Federal SEOG Grant
The following is an example of Return of Title IV Funds calculation for a Dalton State College student:
Institutional Charges
| Fees/Charges | Amount |
|---|---|
| Tuition & Fees | $1,200.00 |
| Bookstore Charges | $450.00 |
| Housing Charges | $1,975.00 |
| Total Charges | $3,625.00 |
Title IV Aid Disbursed
| Fees/Charges | Amount |
|---|---|
| Federal Pell Grant | $2,675.00 |
State Aid Disbursed
| Fees/Charges | Amount |
|---|---|
| HOPE Scholarship | $1,059.00 |
The student withdrew on the 12th day of a 120-day semester (enrollment period); the earned and unearned portions of Title IV aid are calculated as follows:
| Percent Earned | 12 / 120 | 10% |
| Percent Earned | 12 / 120 | 10% |
| Percent Unearned | 100% - 10% | 90% |
| Amount of unearned Title IV aid | Federal Pell Grant $2,675 x 90% | $2,407.50 |
| Amount of unearned State aid | HOPE Scholarship $1,059 x 90% | $953.10 |
Dalton State College is responsible for returning the lesser of unearned Title IV aid ($2,407.50 from above) and unearned tuition, fees, books and institutional housing charges ($3,625 x 90% = $3,262.50)
DSC will return $2,407.50 to the Federal Pell Grant program.
Calculation to determine if the student owes money to federal grant programs:
- Subtract Stafford Loans received for the term from the total unearned federal aid figure
$2,407.50 - $0 (no Stafford Loans) = $2,407.50 in unearned federal grant aid - Subtract unearned federal grant aid from the amount the college is returning to federal grant programs to determine the amount the student must repay to federal grant programs:
$2,407.50 - $2,407.50 = $0
Repayment to Georgia aid programs
Georgia regulations require state aid recipients (including all state scholarships and grants) who also receive federal aid to repay unearned state aid when they withdraw from classes. The student owes the following back to the state Scholarship program:
$1,059 (HOPE Scholarship tuition and fee portion) x 90% = $953.10 due to State of Georgia
State aid repayments are made to Dalton State College; the College then returns the funds to the state agency on the student’s behalf. No additional Georgia financial aid may be received until this repayment is made in full to Dalton State College and the state database is cleared of the Hope overpayments.
Repayment to Dalton State College
- Financial aid students who withdraw must repay Dalton State College the difference between the amount Dalton State returns to Title IV programs and the tuition refund generated by their withdrawal.
In the example above, the student’s tuition refund is:
$1,200 x 90% (percentage of term attend not attended) = $1,080 - Amount returned to aid programs by Dalton State = $2,407.50 from above
Amount student must repay Dalton State:
$2,407.50 - $1,080.00 tuition refund = $1,327.50 due Dalton State College
Any refund from institutional charges will be applied toward this repayment. Repayment may be required with funds other than financial aid. If this occurs and the bill remains unpaid for more than 120 days, a third party collection agency will be used and the debtor will also become liable for any collection costs associated with the collection of any amount not paid up to 33.3%. Additionally, if accounts are referred to an outside collection agency, balances due to Dalton State College will be reported to all three credit bureaus.
The total the student owes due to withdrawing from classes is:- Due Georgia aid programs 953.10
- Due Dalton State College 2,407.50*
- Total $3,360.60*
* This amount due is prior to any refund from institutional housing for the student in this example.
For further information and other examples of the Return of Title IV policy, please contact the Office of Student Financial Aid and Veteran Services at (706) 272-4545.
It is strongly recommended that any student receiving financial aid who is contemplating withdrawing from the college first contact the Office of Student Financial Aid to determine the financial impact of that decision.