Colleges of the Dallas County Community College District return unearned funds received from Federal student assistance programs to the proper program accounts or lenders in accordance with Federal Title IV student assistance regulations under 34 CFR, section 668.22(a) , the Higher Education Act of 1965 as amended, with rules of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, and with district board policies. The Return of Title IV policy differs from the refund policy of the colleges of the Dallas County Community College District which may be accessed under the tuition refund section of this catalog. DCCCD Tuition Refund Policy
The student receiving assistance from Federal Title IV programs is required to complete a minimum number of hours for which aid was received. Although the aid is posted to the account at the beginning of each payment period, the funds are earned as the payment period is completed. If the student completely withdraws from school during the payment period, withdraws from all classes which are eligible for Title IV aid but remains in classes which are not paid by Title IV aid, or quits attending, but fails to officially withdraw, the student may be required to return the unearned part of the funds which were received to help pay educational expenses for the payment period. Liability for return of Federal Title IV funds will be determined according to the following guidelines:
- If the student remains enrolled and attends class for more than 60% of the payment period in which aid is received, all federal aid is considered earned and not subject to this policy.
- If the student completely withdraws from all Title IV eligible classes before completing more than 60% of the semester, a pro-rated portion of the federal aid received must be returned to the federal aid programs equal to the percentage of the semester remaining.
- If all eligible aid was not already disbursed to the student before the student withdrew, the earned portion of aid will be paid to the student as a post-withdrawal disbursement within 30 days of the Date of Determination that the student has withdrawn.
- If the student does not officially withdraw from classes, and stops attending all classes, a pro-rated portion of the federal aid received, based on the documented last date of attendance, must be returned to the federal aid programs. If the college is unable to document the last date of attendance, the mid-point date will be used to determine the portion of aid that should be returned.
- If a student withdraws from all classes prior to disbursement of funds, a post withdrawal calculation will be conducted to determine the actual amount of earned funds. In some instances, students will be asked to provide confirmation to accept some or part of the earned funds.
- the date the school sends the student notice of the overpayment, or
- the date the school was required to notify the student of the overpayment.
Return of Federal Title IV (R2T4) funds will be distributed according to statutory regulations with 45 days of the Date of Determination on the R2T4 worksheet. The funds will be returned to the appropriate federal programs in the order mandated by the regulation in section 34 CFR 668.22(i). The current order of distribution occurs with money returned to Unsubsidized Federal Direct Stafford loans, Subsidized Federal Direct Stafford loans, Federal Pell Grants, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (SEOG), and Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grants. The amount of aid earned is determined by a specific formula on a pro-rata basis. For example if the student has completed 40% of the period of enrollment before withdrawal then the student would have earned 40% of the aid that the student was originally scheduled to receive.
Under this policy the student and school each may have some responsibility to return funds to the U.S. Department of Education. Charges for tuition and fees for classes which are Title IV eligible are used to determine the schools portion to be returned. Charges for library fines, lab breakages, tuition for non-Title IV eligible classes and other non-educationally related charges are not included in the determination. The student will remain responsible for payment of those fines and non-educationally related charges.
If a student's share of the return amount is greater than $50, the student is to return the funds to the business office of the college for deposit into the federal programs accounts. The regulation specifies the earlier of the two dates, students who owe overpayments as a result of withdrawals initially will retain their eligibility for Title IV funds for a maximum of 45 days from the earlier of:
The process to withdraw is detailed under Academic Information in the Dropping/Withdrawing from College section of the 2018-2019 Catalog Table of Contents.
The colleges of the Dallas County Community College District do not offer a Leave of Absence at this time.
