Message from GSFC President, Tim Connell We are quickly approaching the summer and I wanted to provide you with an update about Georgia Student Finance Commission and our operations. As many of you are aware, with the end of the Family Federal Education Loan Program (FFELP) and the conversion to Direct Lending, GSFC has been impacted. Unfortunately, this change required us to undergo a reduction in staff. The individuals impacted were our colleagues and our friends. These types of actions are always difficult. With the reduction in staff, we took the opportunity to reorganize some of our business processes. A brief overview of the reorganization and the changes follow: Student Aid Services - Caylee French, Division Director This unit is responsible for Program Administration, the Call Center, and Scholarship and Grant originations and disbursements. K-12 Student and School Services - Sarah Baumhoff, Division Director This unit is responsible for outreach to K-12 schools and GAcollege411. Post-Secondary Student and School Services - Tracy Ireland, Division Director This unit is responsible for outreach to colleges, Compliance, Default Prevention and FFEL Program. Loan Servicing - Stephanie Green, Division Director This unit is responsible for loan servicing and service cancelable loan repayment. Learning Resource - Lynne Cage, Senior Manager This unit is responsible for scheduling professional training opportunities. The directory of contacts has been updated on the website and can be located at: http://www.gsfc.org/gsfcnew/financial_aid_prof_directory.cfm. If you are not sure who to contact, please contact me or any one of the individuals listed above and they will be happy to assist you. The summer promises to be a busy time for GSFC. As you are aware, there is already a great deal of discussion regarding the HOPE program and its future. GSFC is working on having data ready to assist the discussions that will be taking place over the summer. If there is anything we can assist you with, please don't hesitate to contact me or a member of our team. Tim MAY 2010 ARTICLES Message From GSFC President, Tim Connell 2010 Legislative Agenda Transcript Exchange Update State Program Budget Update GSFC's Board of Commissioners Approves Program Regulations For 2010-2011 Caylee French Elected to GASFAA Board GASFAA Conference Update GSFC Board Meeting GSFC Expands Deferment and Forbearance Options for Teachers Editor's Note GSFC411 ARCHIVE March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 More RELATED LINKS GAcollege411 Partner Update Compliance Corner Archive Board of Regents Technical College System of Georgia Mapping Your Future Department of Education Georgia Foundation for Independent Colleges Georgia Student Finance Commission 2082 East Exchange Place Tucker, Georgia 30084 (770) 724-9000 or 1-800-505-GSFC (4732) FAX (770) 724-9089 GAcollege411.org - www.gsfc.org 2010 Legislative Agenda SB 340 - Revises the law to require that each school system and private school transmit to GSFC an electronic transcript of courses and course grades for each student (9th-11th grade) that reflects the complete high school academic record of the student and the grading scales used by the school system or private school for the time periods referenced by the transcripts. Bill passed by Senate and House; signed by the Governor on May 24, 2010. SB 341 - Revises the law to require that eligibility for the HOPE GED Grant include Georgia residency. Bill passed by Senate and House; signed by the Governor on May 24, 2010 SB 387 - Revises the law to provide that GSFC, beginning with the 20102011 school year, shall provide students in the 6th-8th grade with web based counseling advisement, career awareness, career interest inventories, and information to assist them in evaluating their academic skills and career interests. Bill passed by Senate and House; signed by the Governor on May 24, 2010. Appropriations Bills HB 947 - Amended FY 2010 Budget. Bill passed by Senate and House; Signed by Governor 5/6/2010. HB 948 - FY 2011 Budget. Bill passed by Senate and House; awaiting Governor's signature. Establishes the Georgia College Opportunity Grant, which provides additional financial aid for Pell eligible residents of Georgia. Eliminates HOPE Teacher and Promise Teacher Programs. Increases HOPE Private award to $4,000. Increases TEG award to $750. Other Bill of Interest HB 311 - Amends the law by changing the definition of a qualified proprietary institution as it relates to the Tuition Equalization Grants and the HOPE Scholarship. The bill would require proprietary institutions to be in existence in the state of Georgia for fourteen years. Bill passed by Senate; did not get final approval by the House. MAY 2010 ARTICLES Message From GSFC President, Tim Connell 2010 Legislative Agenda Transcript Exchange Update State Program Budget Update GSFC's Board of Commissioners Approves Program Regulations For 2010-2011 Caylee French Elected to GASFAA Board GASFAA Conference Update GSFC Board Meeting GSFC Expands Deferment and Forbearance Options for Teachers Editor's Note GSFC411 ARCHIVE March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 More RELATED LINKS GAcollege411 Partner Update Compliance Corner Archive Board of Regents Technical College System of Georgia Mapping Your Future Department of Education Georgia Foundation for Independent Colleges Georgia Student Finance Commission 2082 East Exchange Place Tucker, Georgia 30084 (770) 724-9000 or 1-800-505-GSFC (4732) FAX (770) 724-9089 GAcollege411.org - www.gsfc.org Transcript Exchange Update The high school Transcript Exchange process for 2010 Preliminary HOPE GPA calculation ended on March 16. The Preliminary HOPE process went very well. Out of 711 high schools and an estimated 106,000 senior students: 601 schools uploaded transcripts and received GPA calculations (84.5%) 561 schools verified their GPA results (78.9%) 100,012 senior students were uploaded and calculated (94.4%) 96,687 senior students GPA calculations were verified by their school (91.2%) 36,853 senior students were identified as eligible and verified by their school 98.5% of the eligible senior students were verified The high schools are to be commended for the tremendous job they did on this year's Preliminary HOPE GPA process. The number and percentage of senior students calculated and verified exceeds any previous year for Preliminary HOPE submissions. The list of all these eligible senior students has been and will continue to be available to all post secondary schools in the state through the SURFER system. Senior students continue to have access to their Preliminary HOPE GPAs through their secure My411 Account on GAcollege411. The HOPE Progress Report for ninth through eleventh grade students is being used by more and more high schools. To date, we have received uploaded transcripts from 262 schools and calculated HOPE Progress GPAs for 170,714 students. This service will allow students, parents and counselors to monitor a students' progress towards HOPE eligibility as early as the ninth grade. .Underclassmen can also view and monitor their progress in the same manner that seniors access their HOPE GPA. The 2010 Final HOPE GPA process will begin in mid May and will be available through June 30, 2010. MAY 2010 ARTICLES Message From GSFC President, Tim Connell 2010 Legislative Agenda Transcript Exchange Update State Program Budget Update GSFC's Board of Commissioners Approves Program Regulations For 2010-2011 Caylee French Elected to GASFAA Board GASFAA Conference Update GSFC Board Meeting GSFC Expands Deferment and Forbearance Options for Teachers Editor's Note GSFC411 ARCHIVE March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 More RELATED LINKS GAcollege411 Partner Update Compliance Corner Archive Board of Regents Technical College System of Georgia Mapping Your Future Department of Education Georgia Foundation for Independent Colleges Georgia Student Finance Commission 2082 East Exchange Place Tucker, Georgia 30084 (770) 724-9000 or 1-800-505-GSFC (4732) FAX (770) 724-9089 GAcollege411.org - www.gsfc.org State Program Budget Update About two weeks ago, Governor Perdue signed the State Fiscal Year 2010 amended budget into law. The General Assembly and the Governor increased funding to the HOPE Scholarship and Grant program by more than $60 million dollars so that demand for the current year could be met. Just as soon as GSFC received the funds, invoices were released to schools. All invoices for lottery funded programs have been processed and disbursed to schools. Programs funded by State General Funds such as the Tuition Equalization Grant (TEG) Program continue to be disbursed on a periodic basis and as funds are received by GSFC from the state. The General Assembly did pass the state fiscal year 2011 budget, but, as of the date of this article, it has yet to be signed into law by Governor Perdue. The highlights of the budget include the following: increases in funding for all HOPE Scholarship and Grant Programs to meet estimated demand Increase HOPE Private annual award amount to $4,000 Funded TEG in the amount of $750 per year Established the College Opportunity Grant Program with $15 million in funding. This is a new need based aid program and further details will be provided in the near future. The HOPE Teacher and PROMISE Teacher Scholarship Loan Programs have been eliminated along with the elimination of the Law Enforcement Personnel Dependents Grant Program Many schools have asked if it was ok to go ahead and package HOPE Private and TEG with program award amounts as passed by the General Assembly. While the decision to package aid before the budget is signed into law by the Governor is solely up to the school, we suggest that schools wait until the 2011 budget is finalized. As more information becomes available we will be sure to pass it along. In the meantime, if there are any questions or concerns, please contact Tracy Ireland at tracyi@gsfc.org or Caylee French at cayleef@gsfc.org. MAY 2010 ARTICLES Message From GSFC President, Tim Connell 2010 Legislative Agenda Transcript Exchange Update State Program Budget Update GSFC's Board of Commissioners Approves Program Regulations For 2010-2011 Caylee French Elected to GASFAA Board GASFAA Conference Update GSFC Board Meeting GSFC Expands Deferment and Forbearance Options for Teachers Editor's Note GSFC411 ARCHIVE March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 More RELATED LINKS GAcollege411 Partner Update Compliance Corner Archive Board of Regents Technical College System of Georgia Mapping Your Future Department of Education Georgia Foundation for Independent Colleges Georgia Student Finance Commission 2082 East Exchange Place Tucker, Georgia 30084 (770) 724-9000 or 1-800-505-GSFC (4732) FAX (770) 724-9089 GAcollege411.org - www.gsfc.org GSFC's Board of Commissioners Approves Program Regulations for 2010-2011 On May 7, 2010, GSFC's Board of Commissioners approved the official Program Regulations for the 2010-2011 state fiscal year. While most of the changes are minor, a few changes are substantive and others offer clarification to several programs. Of note, the residency section of most program regulations has been updated along with the Exceptions provisions. At the recent GASFAA Spring Conference, GSFC staff presented the major changes to the Program Regulations to school representatives from across Georgia. In the coming days, the 2010-2011 Program Regulations will be posted online at www.gsfc.org. Please feel free to review the regulations and if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact Caylee French at cayleef@gsfc.org. MAY 2010 ARTICLES Message From GSFC President, Tim Connell 2010 Legislative Agenda Transcript Exchange Update State Program Budget Update GSFC's Board of Commissioners Approves Program Regulations For 2010-2011 Caylee French Elected to GASFAA Board GASFAA Conference Update GSFC Board Meeting GSFC Expands Deferment and Forbearance Options for Teachers Editor's Note GSFC411 ARCHIVE March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 More RELATED LINKS GAcollege411 Partner Update Compliance Corner Archive Board of Regents Technical College System of Georgia Mapping Your Future Department of Education Georgia Foundation for Independent Colleges Georgia Student Finance Commission 2082 East Exchange Place Tucker, Georgia 30084 (770) 724-9000 or 1-800-505-GSFC (4732) FAX (770) 724-9089 GAcollege411.org - www.gsfc.org Caylee French Elected to GASFAA Board Caylee French, Division Director of Student Aid Programs, was elected to the Georgia Association of Financial Aid Administrators Board (GASFAA) at the group's conference in May. Caylee will be representing GSFC as the Vice President of Programs, which is responsible for planning the group's annual conference. Caylee has served on the GASFAA Program Committee for the past two years. Congratulations Caylee and thank you for your willingness to serve Georgia students, financial aid administrators and GSFC. MAY 2010 ARTICLES Message From GSFC President, Tim Connell 2010 Legislative Agenda Transcript Exchange Update State Program Budget Update GSFC's Board of Commissioners Approves Program Regulations For 2010-2011 Caylee French Elected to GASFAA Board GASFAA Conference Update GSFC Board Meeting GSFC Expands Deferment and Forbearance Options for Teachers Editor's Note GSFC411 ARCHIVE March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 More RELATED LINKS GAcollege411 Partner Update Compliance Corner Archive Board of Regents Technical College System of Georgia Mapping Your Future Department of Education Georgia Foundation for Independent Colleges Georgia Student Finance Commission 2082 East Exchange Place Tucker, Georgia 30084 (770) 724-9000 or 1-800-505-GSFC (4732) FAX (770) 724-9089 GAcollege411.org - www.gsfc.org GASFAA Conference Update Caylee French and Tracy Ireland provided a State Programs Update for the GASFAA Conference earlier in May. For those of you who were not able to attend the conference, or would like a copy of the presentation, you can access it here . MAY 2010 ARTICLES Message From GSFC President, Tim Connell 2010 Legislative Agenda Transcript Exchange Update State Program Budget Update GSFC's Board of Commissioners Approves Program Regulations For 2010-2011 Caylee French Elected to GASFAA Board GASFAA Conference Update GSFC Board Meeting GSFC Expands Deferment and Forbearance Options for Teachers Editor's Note GSFC411 ARCHIVE March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 More RELATED LINKS GAcollege411 Partner Update Compliance Corner Archive Board of Regents Technical College System of Georgia Mapping Your Future Department of Education Georgia Foundation for Independent Colleges Georgia Student Finance Commission 2082 East Exchange Place Tucker, Georgia 30084 (770) 724-9000 or 1-800-505-GSFC (4732) FAX (770) 724-9089 GAcollege411.org - www.gsfc.org GSFC Board Meeting The GSFC Board of Commissioners held its quarterly meeting on May 6 - 7. The following are highlights of the meeting: Election of Officers William (Billy) R. Jerles, Jr., 8th Congressional District, was reelected to the office of Board Chairman and Kay Brown, 12th Congressional District, was reelected Vice-Chair. Board Appointments Last month Governor Perdue appointed Faison Middleton to GSFC's Board. Mr. Middleton, an attorney who lives in Albany, will represent the 2nd Congressional District. The Governor also reappointed Middleton Ramsey, representing Georgia's 10th Congressional District, and Dr. Patricia Burd, representing Georgia's 9th Congressional District, to serve another term on our Board. Strategic Planning On Thursday, Executive Vice President Dana Russell led the Board through the Agency's strategic planning process for the FY2011 Fiscal Year and revisited the Wildly Important Goals that had been set for FY2010. This year, GSFC's major initiatives for FY2011 include revising the HOPE Program and moving forward with direct loan servicing. 2010-2011 Board Meeting Schedule The Board approved the 2010-2011 meeting schedule. The Board meets quarterly on the first Friday in February, May, August and November. Below are the dates and locations for the scheduled meetings: Friday, August 6, 2010 (Executive Board Room, Tucker, GA) Friday, November 5, 2010 (Executive Board Room, Tucker, GA) Friday, February 4, 2011 (Executive Board Room, Tucker, GA) Thursday and Friday, May 5-6, 2011 (Location To Be Determined) On Thursday night, the Board was joined by several local members of the financial aid community. Guests included Dr. Flora Tydings, President, Athens Technical College, Mr. Patrick Harris, Director of Financial Aid, Athens Technical College, Dr. Mel Palmer, Vice President, Piedmont College, Mr. Jay Mooney, Associate Director of Operations, University of Georgia, Mrs. Bonnie Joeschke, Financial Aid Director, University of Georgia, Joanne Sorrow, Assistant to the Director, University of Georgia, Nancy Ferguson, Financial Aid Advisor, Scholarships/HOPE/SAP, University of Georgia and Lori Whitaker, Financial Aid Advisor, University of Georgia. A complete copy of the Board's Agenda is available at http://www.gsfc.org/gsfcnew/about_boc.CFM . MAY 2010 ARTICLES Message From GSFC President, Tim Connell 2010 Legislative Agenda Transcript Exchange Update State Program Budget Update GSFC's Board of Commissioners Approves Program Regulations For 2010-2011 Caylee French Elected to GASFAA Board GASFAA Conference Update GSFC Board Meeting GSFC Expands Deferment and Forbearance Options for Teachers Editor's Note GSFC411 ARCHIVE March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 More RELATED LINKS GAcollege411 Partner Update Compliance Corner Archive Board of Regents Technical College System of Georgia Mapping Your Future Department of Education Georgia Foundation for Independent Colleges Georgia Student Finance Commission 2082 East Exchange Place Tucker, Georgia 30084 (770) 724-9000 or 1-800-505-GSFC (4732) FAX (770) 724-9089 GAcollege411.org - www.gsfc.org GSFC Expands Deferment and Forbearance Options for Teachers As a result of the continued economic decline across Georgia that has forced secondary school systems to reduce staff, eliminate positions and/or hold vacancies in order to balance budgets, the Georgia Student Finance Commission (GSFC) Board of Commissioners voted to expand deferment and forbearance options for Georgia teacher graduates and students who have taken out service cancelable loans through the PROMISE Teacher or HOPE Teacher programs. The amendments were made to the FY2010 PROMISE and HOPE Teacher program regulations on February 5, 2010. Furthermore, the amendments were included in the FY2011 regulations that will become effective on July 1, 2010. "Many PROMISE Teacher and HOPE Teacher borrowers are currently unable to secure teaching positions, and subsequently have to enter into cash repayment," states Tim Connell, president of the Georgia Student Finance Commission. "We realize that going into cash repayment is an added economic hardship, and the Board wanted to provide the borrowers with temporary relief." The deferment and forbearance options will be the same ones offered in the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) and William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan programs. The deferment types include in-school, temporary total disability, military service, unemployment, economic hardship, and others. The forbearance types include bankruptcy, total and permanent disability, unemployment, national emergencies such as living in a designated disaster area and military mobilization. Borrowers with questions regarding eligibility criteria may contact GSFC at 1-888-414-2692. The PROMISE Teacher and the HOPE Teacher Scholarship Loan programs assist students with the cost of attending college at the baccalaureate and/or graduate level. Once a student completes his or her studies, the loans are repaid by working as a teacher in Georgia in critical fields of study such as: Special Education, Math, Science, Language Arts, English, History, Economics, Political Science, Geography, French, Spanish, Music and Art. As a note, the programs were not funded in the State of Georgia budget for the 2010-2011 award year. Students that were awarded loans in previous years will continue to have the service cancelable benefit options identified in the program regulations. MAY 2010 ARTICLES Message From GSFC President, Tim Connell 2010 Legislative Agenda Transcript Exchange Update State Program Budget Update GSFC's Board of Commissioners Approves Program Regulations For 2010-2011 Caylee French Elected to GASFAA Board GASFAA Conference Update GSFC Board Meeting GSFC Expands Deferment and Forbearance Options for Teachers Editor's Note GSFC411 ARCHIVE March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 More RELATED LINKS GAcollege411 Partner Update Compliance Corner Archive Board of Regents Technical College System of Georgia Mapping Your Future Department of Education Georgia Foundation for Independent Colleges Georgia Student Finance Commission 2082 East Exchange Place Tucker, Georgia 30084 (770) 724-9000 or 1-800-505-GSFC (4732) FAX (770) 724-9089 GAcollege411.org - www.gsfc.org Editor's Note We will now be sending the external newsletter out four times each year - May, August, November and February. These issues will coincide with our quarterly Board Meetings. We will continue to send operational updates on an as needed basis. If you have comments or suggestions of items you would like included in an upcoming edition of the newsletter, please send them to Sarah Baumhoff at sarahb@gsfc.org. MAY 2010 ARTICLES Message From GSFC President, Tim Connell 2010 Legislative Agenda Transcript Exchange Update State Program Budget Update GSFC's Board of Commissioners Approves Program Regulations For 2010-2011 Caylee French Elected to GASFAA Board GASFAA Conference Update GSFC Board Meeting GSFC Expands Deferment and Forbearance Options for Teachers Editor's Note GSFC411 ARCHIVE March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 More RELATED LINKS GAcollege411 Partner Update Compliance Corner Archive Board of Regents Technical College System of Georgia Mapping Your Future Department of Education Georgia Foundation for Independent Colleges Georgia Student Finance Commission 2082 East Exchange Place Tucker, Georgia 30084 (770) 724-9000 or 1-800-505-GSFC (4732) FAX (770) 724-9089 GAcollege411.org - www.gsfc.org