With Congress unable to reach an agreement for the federal budget, the federal government is no longer currently operating. What does this mean for education?
The good news: Pell Grants and student loans will continue to be disbursed. If you or your students need assistance with a Federal Student Aid question, please consult this list to see which service centers are still available. Almost ALL call centers will still be open, (e.g. 1-800-4-FEDAID)
The bad news: Aid from campus-based aid programs, such as SEOG and Work Study, will not be distributed during the shutdown.
Continue to watch for alerts from NCAN on the developments here in Washington and how that will affect your work. Our students are fortunate that this is a less busy time of year in terms of federal student aid, but a drawn out closure could have consequences. If you have questions, please contact Carrie Warick at warickc@collegeaccess.org.
Additional details on how the shutdown effects the Department of Education:
In the short term, in the case of a shutdown lasting about one week, the impact to the Department of Education will be small. The Education Department will furlough over 90% of its staff, but appointees requiring Senate confirmation, their support staff, and a small portion of the staff needed to oversee student loans and Pell Grants will continue reporting to work.
If the shutdown lasts more than a week, delays in funding to school districts and institutions of higher education will start to have an effect. While Pell Grants and student loans will continue as mentioned above, grants at the institutional or school level will be delayed due to fewer staff or will be placed on hold until a new budget is passed.
More details on the shutdown can be found in the Department of Education Closure Procedure and this Inside Higher Education article.
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