About Emergency Aid

Your financial aid office has staff who are experts on financial aid laws and regulations. They also have access to the Federal Student Aid Handbook—a compilation of Department of Education regulations and guidance—and to similar resources for state rules. The Department of Education has regional training offices that financial aid administrators can rely on to provide both training and to answer individual questions. NASFAA member institutions have access to NASFAA’s AskRegs Knowledgebase, where they can search for reliable, researched answers to questions to regulatory questions that have previously been asked or submit a new question of their own to receive an answer from NASFAA’s regulatory staff.
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Emergency aid must be treated just like any other type of aid for federal student aid eligibility purposes, and this means that they must have unmet need in order to qualify for assistance from an emergency aid program. There are options for students with emergencies who don’t have unmet need. Short-term loans do not need to be counted as EFA and, as such, do not require the student to have unmet need. Professional Judgment (PJ) is another option that allows the financial aid office to increase the student’s unmet need by either increasing the COA or decreasing the EFC. There may be resources administered outside of the institution, such as means-tested benefits or off-campus food pantries that could help the student through their emergency but don’t need to be factored into the student’s financial aid package.
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Yes. Short-term loans that must be repaid by the student before the end of the payment period or semester do not have be treated as Estimated Financial Aid (EFA) and, as such, do not need to be counted as part of the student’s total financial aid award. Assistance that is available to individuals beyond just the institution’s students, like a food pantry that is open to the broader community instead of limited to enrolled students, also does not need to be factored into a student’s financial aid eligibility.
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Yes. While there is no specific federal funding source that is designated to cover emergencies, an institution can use federal student aid to cover a student’s emergency expenses, provided the student meets federal student aid eligibility requirements.
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Because emergency aid is administered at the institutional level, each institution will develop its own application process for emergency aid.
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Eligibility for financial aid from any source, including emergency aid, is limited by a student’s unmet need. Unmet need is calculated by subtracting a student’s Estimated Family Contribution (EFC)—an estimate of a family’s ability to pay based on the information they provided on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)—and their Estimated Financial Aid (EFA)—the total of all financial aid the student is expected to receive—from the Cost of Attendance (COA), which is the institution’s estimate of the total cost to attend the institution for the academic year. The difference between COA-EFC-EFA is called “unmet need” and represents a student’s remaining eligibility for financial aid, including emergency aid. A student must have unmet
need to qualify for emergency aid.
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No. It is the type of aid, and not the entity administering it, that determines whether emergency aid will count against a student’s other aid eligibility. Institutions are required to have a system of identifying and resolving discrepancies in all federal student aid-related information received by any school office. As such, all campus offices that award or are otherwise aware of a source
of financial aid, including emergency aid, must report it to the financial aid office for it to be considered part of the student’s total financial aid package.
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While there is no single definition of emergency aid, emergency aid tends to address an immediate need to cover an unexpected expense versus a student simply being generally underresourced or not having planned for predictable expenses. Financial aid for tuition and fees, books and supplies, transportation, personal expenses, and other standard education-related expenses that are included in the institution’s Cost of Attendance (COA) are not generally considered emergency aid.
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Yes, and this decision tree from NASFAA may help. Short-term or emergency loans that must be repaid before the end of the aid payment period or semester are not considered Estimated Financial Aid (EFA). Assistance that is available to individuals outside of the institution’s students—like a food pantry that is open to the broader community instead of limited only to enrolled students—also does not need to be factored into a student’s financial aid eligibility. All other types of emergency aid must be considered EFA.
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Yes. However, funds received for periods of non-enrollment are still subject to federal financial aid regulations and must be considered Estimated Financial Aid (EFA). Also, the costs the emergency aid is covering cannot be added to the student’s Cost of Attendance (COA), meaning that the student must demonstrate unmet need in order to qualify for emergency aid, even for
periods of non-enrollment.
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Because emergency aid is administered at the institutional level, institutions will develop their own documentation requirements as part of the application process. Common types of documentation might include a copy of a receipt for an expense incurred, or a letter or invoice from a service provider. If it becomes necessary to adjust the student’s financial aid eligibility in order to accommodate emergency aid, the financial aid office can instruct students about exactly what documentation is necessary.
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No, any amount of emergency aid must be considered Estimated Financial Aid (EFA) and be counted as part of a student’s total eligibility.
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A financial aid appeal is known as a “Professional Judgment” or PJ, when financial aid administrators exercise their authority to reevaluate a student’s financial circumstances. PJ requires documentation, review by a financial aid administrator, disbursement of funds to the student’s account, and a refund to the student by the student accounts office. This process can take days, at minimum. Emergency aid programs represent an opportunity to circumvent the formal appeals process to get funds into students’ hands quickly. Emergency aid requests are more appropriate for one-time funding needs. There also may be separate funding streams for financial aid appeals and emergency aid.
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Yes. This type of emergency aid is sometimes referred to as a “completion grant” because the institution awards emergency funds to cover a balance due that would otherwise prevent the student from graduating. This is an appropriate use of emergency aid funds as long as the student has unmet need. See question 1 in this section for more on unmet need.
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Consult this data sharing decision tree as a resource. There are three important federal laws that control the release of student data:

• The Higher Education Act (HEA), specifically, sections 483(a)(3)(E) and 485B(d)(2)
• The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
• The Privacy Act

You should also ensure compliance with any relevant state or local student data sharing rules and adhere to your own institution’s data sharing policies as well.
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Emergency aid is any financial or material resource offered by higher education institutions to students who face unexpected and untimely crises that could prevent them from completing their academic term.

Yes! Student ARC features a range of resources, guides, and examples about how institutions can implement the right emergency aid program for their needs. Check out our Tools and Resources page to explore our content, including a rubric for gauging the strength of emergency aid efforts.

Each institution may have a different definition for an emergency. Generally, these include a sudden health emergency, an unexpected loss in income, a family loss like a death or illness, an unexpected bill or repair, a significant change or loss of housing or even a natural disaster such as a fire or flood. Most institutions use a case-by-case approach to determine what is considered an emergency.

There are many types of emergency aid. The primary types include campus vouchers, completion scholarships, emergency loans, access to free and reduced-cost groceries through food pantries, restricted grants and unrestricted grants. See Key Terms below for specific definitions on these types of aid.

Financial literacy represents the skills, knowledge and resources needed to make smart financial decisions. Many emergency aid programs accompany financial support with information to improve financial literacy to help students make effective decisions during and after a financial crisis.

Institutions can help students quickly by automating portions of the aid process. For example, if the initial application is a paper form, that may discourage students from applying for aid. An online application could address this. On-campus outreach about the availability of emergency aid programs and quick review and approval of requests can lower barriers so more students in need receive aid.

A provision for emergency student aid is available in a growing number of institutions across the country. In 2016, NASPA’s Landscape Analysis of Emergency Aid found that more than 500 institutions, or 82% of respondents, reported offering a resource to help students address an unexpected financial crisis. It’s also common for professionals from multiple functional units, most often financial aid or student affairs, to work collaboratively to address the student’s situation.

The U.S. Department of Education has a website devoted to student data privacy issues. Also, NASFAA has developed this data sharing decision tree for Student ARC as well as their own data sharing decision tree to help institutions determine how, with whom, and under what conditions they may disclose private student data.
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Probably. In order to disclose a student’s income, it must be for the purpose of administering federal, state, or institutional aid. According to the Department of Education, “administration of aid” includes program evaluations necessary for the efficient and effective administration of the student aid programs. The institution must also establish a legitimate educational interest in the disclosed information. Institutions have discretion in defining what constitutes a legitimate educational interest; work with your administration to define those conditions.
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