[Oasfaa] Full Time Enrollment Status with Respect to ADA

Wed Jun 6 09:58:33 CDT 2007

Matt,

You can't adjust her enrollment status for federal aid due to the
disability.  2006-2007 Federal Student Aid Handbook, Volume 1 Student
Eligibility, Chapter 1 School Determined Requirements, page 1-11:

Your definition of a full-time workload for a program must be used

for all students enrolled in that program and must be the same

definition for all FSA-related purposes, including loan deferments.

You can't accommodate a student with a learning disability or other

handicap by allowing the student a full-time enrollment status lower

than the minimum standard.

* Minimum standards for full-time enrollment. You may include any

combination of courses, work, research, or special studies in your

school's definition of workload. The regulations specify a minimum

standard for undergraduate students but not for graduate students.

For undergraduates, full-time status must be at least:

* 12 semester hours or 12 quarter hours per academic term in an

educational program using a semester, trimester, or quarter

system;

* 24 semester hours or 36 quarter hours per academic year for an

educational program using credit hours but not using a

semester, trimester, or quarter system, or the prorated

equivalent for a program of less than one academic year;

* 24 clock hours per week for an educational program using clock

hours;

* a series of courses or seminars equaling 12 semester or quarter

hours over a maximum of 18 weeks; or

* the work portion of a cooperative education program in which

the amount of work performed is equivalent to the academic

workload of a full-time student.

Your school must have a written policy stating what enrollment

status the work portion of a co-op program is equivalent to. If it

equals a full-time academic load, the co-op student is considered full

time regardless of how many credits are earned for the co-op work.

A student taking only correspondence courses is never considered

to be enrolled more than half time. See Volume 3 for more on Pell

and enrollment status and correspondence courses.

If a student is enrolled in courses that do not count toward his

degree, they cannot be used to determine enrollment status unless

they are noncredit or remedial courses as described in the sidebar.

This means you cannot award the student aid for classes that do not

count toward his degree or certificate.

What you do for institutional aid is up to you.  

Pam McConahay 
Assoc. Dir., Compliance, Training & Lender Relations 
University of Oklahoma Financial Aid Services 
1000 Asp Avenue, Room 216 Norman OK 73019-4078
(405) 325-4617  Fax (405) 325-7608 
pmcconahay at ou.edu 

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________________________________

From: oasfaa-bounces at lists.onenet.net
[mailto:oasfaa-bounces at lists.onenet.net] On Behalf Of Matt D. McCoin
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2007 8:22 AM
To: oasfaa at lists.onenet.net
Subject: [Oasfaa] Full Time Enrollment Status with Respect to ADA

I wanted to seek your opinion regarding a student with a severe learning
disability. Our institution does not currently have a formal "policy"
outlining full-time status definition for those students falling under
ADA. An adjustment was made for a student in the 06-07 academic year
allowing her to be considered a full time student while enrolled in 9
hours. Documentation was gathered from the student's psychologist. The
student is currently enrolled in 6 hours for the Fall 07 semester. One
of the courses is a Math course that will be extremely difficult given
the type of learning disability this student has. The mother is seeking
a letter from the doctor "requesting" the student be considered full
time while only enrolled in 6 hours. Before this request was made I
suggested that the student enroll in an activity based 3 hour course.
Based upon the adjustment that was made last year, the student would
continue to be considered full-time at 9 hours. The mother still may
consider this. 

My question to you: Under ADA, are we "required" to make adjustments in
full-time enrollment status based upon the advice of a medical
professional? Without a formal policy we made an adjustment to 9 hours
last year. Will the decision to drop below 12 hours be considered a
precedent for this case in reducing the full time status to 6, or can we
hold to 9 hours based upon the adjustment last year. 

Finally,

If we made an adjustment to her institutional scholarships reflecting
she is not incurring full-time costs, would that appear as though we are
not considering her full time with respect to institutional aid, but we
are with respect to federal and state aid. I'm trying to look at every
angle. Thanks for your help.

Matthew D. McCoin

Director of Financial Aid

St. Gregory's University

(405) 878-5396

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