Georgia (and everyone else),

I spoke to a Grants Specialist at the US Dept of ED who then spoke to
a Program Officer and then the Grants person relayed the info back to
me.  (I say this so you know this is coming second hand but it is
reliable.)

Here's the question I posed (really relaying your message, Georgia):

The July 24th Federal Register announed a final rule for the USDE
Student Support Services Program (34 CFR Part 646).  "Sufficient
financial assistance" has been defined as the amount of financial aid
offered a Student Support Services student, inclusive of Federal,
State, local, private, and institutional aid which, together with
parent or student contributions, is equal to the cost of attendance
as determined by a financial aid officer at the institution.  One of
the assurances an applicant must include with the application is
"Each student participating in the project will be offered sufficient
financial assistance to meet that student's full financial need."
Does this mean that the institute must award the difference between
cost of attendance and the total of Federal, State, local, private,
and parent or student contributions?

Now I don't know how much the regs have changed but if I remember
correctly they had to do something like this before anyway.  And if I
remember correctly the institution had to meet the students' full
financial need and that they could do this through loans to students
as well as outright institutional grants?  Sound right?

This is the answer I received:

 I [the Grants Specialist] asked the Program Officer working on
 SSS exactly what is implied by
 "offered sufficient financial assistance.   And you are correct.  It
 basically means that the institution, based upon the assurance that
 they signed, has to offer financial assistance to meet the
 participant's need.  This can be in any form, loan, grant, work-study,
 etc.   The only difference between this requirement and the one you
 remember is that in the past it stated that the institution had to
 provide the participant with sufficient funds, now they just have to
 offer.  Hope this helps to answer the question.

I hope this is helpful.  If have more qustions you could call
the Program Officer at ED.

Mike

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 {=>
 Michael Ludwick                                    / \
 Associate Director of Sponsored Programs ___  __   |o|   __  ___
 Grants and Research Administration    ___| |__||___| |___||__| |___
 College of William and Mary          /                             \
 P.O. Box 8795                       /   # # # # #  /o\  # # # # #   \
 Williamsburg, VA  23187-8795        |   # # # # # / # \ # # # # #   |
 email: xxxxxx@grants.wm.edu           |   # # # # # |===| # # # # #   |
 phone: 757.221.3485                 |             | H |             |
 fax:   757.221.4910                 |_____________=====_____________|
 website: http://www.wm.edu/AI/Grants

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