Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund Financial Aid Grants
Updated July 7, 2022
HIGHER EDUCATION EMERGENCY RELIEF FUND (HEERF) GRANTS TO STUDENTS AND INSTITUTIONAL AID
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES or HEERF I”), Pub. L. No. 116-136, 134 Stat. 281 (March 27, 2020), the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2021 (“CRRSAA or HEERF II”), Pub. L. No. 116-260 (December 27, 2020), and the American Rescue Plan Act, 2021 (ARPA or “HEERF III), Pub. L. No. 117-2 (March 11, 2021) direct institutions of higher education receiving Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds to submit reports to the U.S. Secretary of Education describing the use of the funds.
As required by CARES, CRRSAA, and ARPA, and in compliance with guidance from the U.S. Department of Education (the Department), reports here its use of the Emergency Financial Aid Grants to Students and Institutional Aid. The Department's guidance identified the following topics on which each institute of higher education is required to report:
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION REPORTING OF HEERF I, II AND III STUDENT EMERGENCY FINANCIAL AID GRANTS:
- acknowledges that it signed and returned to the Department of Education the Recipient’s Funding Certification and Agreement. ensures that it has used and intends to use no less than 50 percent of the funds received under Section 18004(a)(1) of the CARES Act to provide Emergency Financial Aid Grants to Students and ensures that it has used and intends to use the applicable amount of funds designated under the CRRSAA and ARPA (a) and (a)(4) programs to provide Emergency Financial Aid Grants to Students.
- The total amount of HEERF I funds that has received from the Department of Education pursuant to the ’s CARES Certification and Agreement for Emergency Financial Aid Grants to Students is $1,239,898. The total amount of HEERF II funds that has received from the Department of Education pursuant to the ’s Certification and Agreement for Emergency Financial Aid Grants to Students under CRRSAA is $1,239,898. has received $3,261,605 of HEERF III funds from the Department under the ARPA (a) and (a)(4) program for Emergency Financial Aid Grants to Students.
- As of June 30, 2022, has distributed all of its $1,239,898 of HEERF I Emergency Financial Aid Grants to Students, all of its $1,239,898 of HEERF II CRRSAA Emergency Financial Aid Grants to Students, and all of its $3,261,605 of HEERF III ARPA Emergency Financial Aid Grants to Students.
- determined that 2,835 students were eligible to participate in programs under Section 484 in Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 and thus were eligible to receive HEERF I Emergency Financial Aid Grants to Students under Section 18004(a)(1) of the CARES Act, that 3,435 students were eligible to receive HEERF II Emergency Financial Aid Grants to Students under the CRRSAA program, and that approximately 3,600 students were eligible to receive HEERF III ARPA Emergency Financial Aid Grants.
- As of June 30, 2022, 3,128 students have received HEERF I CARES Act, HEERF II CRRSAA and HEERF III ARPA Emergency Financial Aid Grants.
- For the HEERF I, HEERF II and HEERF III Student Emergency Financial Aid Grants, developed a distribution methodology that prioritized eligible students with the greatest financial needs, while also ensuring that funds are distributed as widely as possible. In order to meet the U.S. Department of Education’s initial requirement to distribute funds only to Title IV eligible students and its focus on prioritizing distributions of the limited funds to students with the greatest financial needs, determined that the grants should primarily be made to eligible students based on their documented FAFSA Estimated Family Contribution (EFC) score. EFC is an index number that colleges use to determine how much financial aid a student is eligible to receive and is calculated according to a formula established by law and the information submitted in the student’s FAFSA form. In order to give more funding to the needier students, the EFC scores were grouped into tiers, with the students in the lower EFC scores/tiers, i.e., the more financially needier students, receiving the higher amount of grant payments. Given the limited amount of funding providing by the government and to provide sufficient funding for the neediest of students, the EFC tiers were capped at the following thresholds; for undergraduates, eligible recipients’ EFCs were capped at $18,271 for HEERF I and HEERF II and $19,999 for HEERF III, and for graduate students, EFCs were capped at $2,999, $4,999 or $5,999 for HEERF I and HEERF II and $9,999 for HEERF III, depending on the graduate program. Remaining amounts of HEERF I, II, and III grants were distributed to undergraduate students with EFCs above $19,999 (in order of lowest EFCs) until all of the remaining grant funds were exhausted.
- also set aside a certain amount of the HEERF I CARES funds (the “Appeal Fund”) to provide an additional round of CARES Act grants via a separate application process to those eligible students who either did not qualify for a first round grant or whose documented financial need exceeded the amount they received in the first round. Eligible second round students (i.e., a Spring 2020 on campus, degree seeking, Title IV eligible student), including those who did not receive a first round grant due to not having filed a 2019-2020 FAFSA or the student’s EFC score was above the threshold caps, were eligible to complete the online second round Cares Act Appeal Fund application through the Office of Student Finance. These applications were processed and reviewed by a team within the Office of Student Finance. If a student is still ineligible for a HEERF I,II or III grant, and the student and/or his or her family were significantly affected by issues associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Office of Student Finance may still be able to help with emergency aid from other institutional resources.
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION REPORTING OF INSTITUTIONAL AID
September 30, 2020 Institutional Aid Quarterly Report - Updated October 9, 2020
Department of Education Quarterly Budget and Expenditure Reporting under CARES Act Section 18004(a)(1) Institutional Portion
September 30, 2020 Institutional Aid Quarterly Report - Updated February 8, 2021
Department of Education Quarterly Budget and Expenditure Reporting under CARES Act Section 18004(a)(1) Institutional Portion
December 31, 2020 Institutional Aid Quarterly Report - Updated January 8, 2021
Department of Education Quarterly Budget and Expenditure Reporting under CARES Act Section 18004(a)(1) Institutional Portion -12.31.20
March 31, 2021 Institutional Aid Quarterly Report – Updated July 9, 2021
Department of Education Quarterly Budget and Expenditure Reporting for HEERF I, II, and III (a)(1) Institutional Portion – March 31, 2021
June 30, 2021 Institutional Aid Quarterly Report – Updated July 9, 2021
Department of Education Quarterly Budget and Expenditure Reporting for HEERF I, II, and III (a)(1) Institutional Portion – June 30, 2021
September 30, 2021 Institutional Aid Quarterly Report - Updated October 8, 2021
Department of Education Quarterly Budget and Expenditure Reporting for HEERF I, II, and III (a)(1) Institutional Portion –Updated September 30, 2021
December 31, 2021 Institutional Aid Quarterly Report – Updated January 10, 2022
Department of Education Quarterly Budget and Expenditure Reporting for HEERF I, II, and III (a)(1) Institutional Portion – December 31, 2021
December 31, 2021 Institutional Aid Quarterly Report – Updated July 7, 2022 Department of Education Quarterly Budget and Expenditure Reporting for HEERF I, II, and III (a)(1) Institutional Portion – December 31, 2021
March 31, 2022 Institutional Aid Quarterly Report – Updated April 8, 2022
Department of Education Quarterly Budget and Expenditure Reporting for HEERF I, II, and III (a)(1) Institutional Portion – March 31, 2022
June 30, 2022 Institutional Aid Quarterly Report - Updated July 7, 2022
Department of Education Quarterly Budget and Expenditure Reporting for HEERF I, II, and III (a)(1) Institutional Portion – June 30, 2022 – June 30, 2022
- has posted the following FAQs on its website providing information to students concerning the Emergency Financial Aid Grants.