When it comes to NSLDS reporting, financial aid professionals can leave some of the optional fields blank in the next report. However, in doing so, they are indicating their school’s intent to early implement some of the provisions of the Working Families Tax Cuts Act.
In a July 1 Electronic Announcement, the Department of Education announced that with the final rules that implement the regulations for the Workforce Pell program and the new accountability framework for the Earnings Accountability and Student Tuition and Transparency System (STATS) that replaces the Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment (FVT/GE) regulations, changes are being made to NSLDS.
The announcement outlines the updates in NSLDS to the FVT/GE Reporting process as well as new fields to accommodate the Workforce Pell program.
In the announcemet, the Deparment said it has made several fields optional for the October 1, 2026, reporting as of July 1, 2026.
“We consider an institution’s decision not to report data in the optional fields to be an indication of its intent to “early-implement” STATS,” the Department said in the announcement. “Institutions that want to remain under the FVT/GE regulations can still report on any of the optional fields and, if reported, accurate information is expected.”
To early-implement removal of the fields, an institution can simply omit data in some or all of the optional fields. All institutions will be required to submit either data under STAT or FVT/GE by October 1, 2026.
In the announcement, the Department said, “If an institution fails to report required information (either under the FVT/GE regulations or with the “early-implementation” of STATS), the institution must provide to the Secretary an explanation of why the institution failed to comply with any of the reporting requirements that is acceptable to the Secretary.”
Questions can be directed to the following:
- Technical questions related to using NSLDS to complete STATS or FVT/GE reporting need to be directed to the NSLDS Customer Support Center at 1-800-999-8219 or via email to nslds@ed.gov.
- Policy questions about the regulations need to be directed to OB3schoolquestions@ed.gov.
