2013-14 Verification Worksheets

Remember that the 2013-14 Pell Grant Verification will be broken into five categories (V1-V5), with each one requiring a different number of items to verify? Over the last few months, the question has been how will the worksheets work? Do you have one worksheet for independent students and one for dependent students, with each section that has to be completed marked? Or do you have five for independent students and five for dependent students?

We finally have the Department of Education's response as to their recommendations. They are not releasing a template this year for the verification worksheets, which they have done in years past (up the current year). The templates for verification worksheets were optional as long as the school required the same information on their worksheets. But without a template for at least some guidance, what does a school do?

The Dept's recommendation is to have five different verification forms for independent students and five different forms for dependent students. The reason for this is actually a simple, logical reason. If a school has one form with all five categories listed on it, and the FA Administrator marks two sections that the student has to fill out, and the student fills out all five, then those extra items have to be verified. With verification, the rules read that if information is volunteered by the student, then the FA Administrator has to verify it, even if it wasn't initially asked for.

To avoid this, it's better to just have five forms that only ask for specific information that won't end up giving too much information. Another reason for this is sometimes when the student gives too much information, it can possibly open the door for conflicting information, which has to be resolved before any FA funds can go through.

So, hopefully soon, we will have our ten worksheets ready (five for independent, five for dependent). Should make for an interesting verification year!