Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

Federal Assistance Listing Number: 84.268 Federal Direct Student Loans Criteria: Per 34 CFR 668.165(a)(3), the College must notify the student or parent of an anticipated Direct Loan disbursement in writing no earlier than 30 days before, and no later than 30 days after, disbursing the loan to the student’s account. Condition: For two of the forty students tested with Direct PLUS Loan disbursements from October 1, 2024 through October 31, 2024, the College did not send the disbursement notifications to the student or parent within the required 30 days. Cause: During October 2024, the College was unable to process Direct PLUS Loan notifications via the Student Information System due to a disruption in service which impacted the College’s electronic process over the Direct PLUS Loan notifications. As a result, manual intervention was required by their software company to upload these loans and certain steps in the process that would typically occur electronically were circumvented causing certain notifications to be missed. The College did not identify any other issue during this timeframe and determines this to be an isolated incident. Effect: The College is not in compliance with the federal regulations regarding the notification of Direct Loan disbursements to students. Prevalence: There were no notifications sent out for twenty-four Direct PLUS loan disbursements that took place during October 2024. Upon discovery, notifications for the Direct PLUS loan disbursements were sent out on August 8, 2025 and August 12, 2025. Recommendation: The College should enhance their control processes to ensure that all Direct PLUS Loan disbursements are identified in a timely manner when the electronic process cannot be utilized. Management’s Response and Planned Corrective Action: Management identified the issue on August 4, 2025 and new letters were emailed on August 8, 2025 and August 12, 2025. To mitigate potential disruptions in the electronic process, the College enhanced its controls to include manual validation of letters.

Federal Assistance Listing Number: 84.268 Federal Direct Student Loans Criteria: Per 34 CFR 682.604(a), a school must ensure that exit counseling is conducted with each Stafford Loan borrower and graduate or professional student PLUS Loan borrower either in person, by audiovisual presentation, or by interactive electronic means. If exit counseling is conducted by electronic interactive means, the College must take reasonable steps to ensure that each student borrower receives the counseling materials, and participates in and completes the counseling. Condition: For 9 out of the 40 students tested, the College did not send an exit counseling package or otherwise take reasonable steps to ensure that the exit counseling materials were received for students who had received Direct Loan disbursements. Cause: The financial aid department at the College experienced staff turnover during the year which resulted in the College not conducting required communications for exit counseling in a timely manner for certain students. Effect: The College is not in compliance with the federal regulations regarding Direct Loan exit counseling communications to students. Prevalence: There was no exit counseling package sent to students who received Direct Loan disbursements and graduated in May 2025. Upon discovery, exit counseling guidance was sent to the students on October 1, 2025. Recommendation: The College should enhance their control processes to ensure that all Direct Loan exit counseling communications are conducted in a timely manner. Management’s Response and Planned Corrective Action: Management identified the issue on September 23, 2025 and exit counseling packages were sent on October 1, 2025. The issue resulted from staff turnover during the year. Upon discovery, management promptly updated procedures, including adding calendar reminders to avoid such missed occurrences going forward.

Federal Assistance Listing Number: 84.007 Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant(“FSEOG”), 84.033 Federal Work-Study Program (“FWS”), 84.038 Federal Perkins Loan Program (“Perkins”) Criteria: Per the federal register and the federal student aid electronic communication, the deadline for the electronic submission of the Fiscal Operations Report for 2024-25and the Application to Participate for 2026-27 (“FISAP”) was 11:59 pm eastern time on October 1, 2025. Transmission must be completed prior to midnight. Additionally, the signature page must be printed, signed, and mailed by the October 1, 2025 deadline. Condition: The College did not submit the FISAP for Award Year July 1, 2024 - June 30, 2025 (Application Award Year July 1, 2026 - June 30, 2027) until October 3, 2025 and did not sign the signature page until October 15, 2025. Cause: The financial aid department at the College experienced staff turnover during the year which resulted in the College not meeting the submission and filing deadline. Effect: The College is not in compliance with the federal regulations regarding the submission of the FISAP and related signature page which may require the College to return campus-based aid drawn down for the FSEOG, FWS, and Perkins programs in the amount of approximately $441,023 for the 2024-2025 award year. Additionally, this may impact the College’s eligibility to receive campus-based aid for the 2026-2027 school year. The College has requested a waiver from the Department of Education for not meeting the submission and filing deadline. As of the date of the report, the waiver is pending approval therefore it is uncertain whether the return of the 2024-2025 campus-based aid (FSEOG of $87,862, FWS of $152,318, and Perkins of $200,842 totaling $441,023) will be required. Prevalence: The College did not submit the FISAP until October 3, 2025 and did not sign the signature page until October 15, 2025. Recommendation: The College should improve their control processes to ensure timely reporting and submission of the FISAP and related signature page. Management’s Response and Planned Corrective Action: Management identified the issue on October 3, 2025 and made the FISAP submission immediately and filed the signature page on October 15, 2025. The issue resulted from staff turnover during the year. Upon discovery, management promptly updated procedures, including adding calendar reminders to avoid such missed occurrences going forward. Additionally, the College has submitted a waiver request with the Department of Education to avoid the return of $441,023 in campus-based aid and to obtain eligibility to receive campus-based aid for the 2026-2027 school year. As of the date of the report, a response to the waiver request from the Department of Education has not been received.

Federal Assistance Listing Number: 84.268 Federal Direct Student Loans Criteria: Per 34 CFR 668.165(a)(3), the College must notify the student or parent of an anticipated Direct Loan disbursement in writing no earlier than 30 days before, and no later than 30 days after, disbursing the loan to the student’s account. Condition: For 1 out of 40 students tested, no notification was sent to the student or parent for the Direct PLUS Loan disbursement made on May 31, 2024. Cause: The College’s previous control process over notification letters was to run a search in the Financial Aid module by selecting a criteria that identifies an award as “Federal.” In May 2024, users of the report were not aware the criteria was changed in the Financial Aid module for the Grad and Parent Plus loans, therefore rendering the criteria and College’s current control of monitoring notification letters ineffective for such student loan disbursements after May 2024. Effect: The College is not in compliance with the federal regulations regarding the notification of Direct Loan disbursements to students. Prevalence: The College ran a report of Direct Loan disbursements made during fiscal year 2024, noting that the required communications had not timely been sent out for 43 Direct Loan disbursements that took place from May 31, 2024 through June 30, 2024. Recommendation: The College should enhance their control processes to ensure that all Direct Loan disbursements are identified in a timely manner, even through system changes. Management’s Response and Planned Corrective Action: Upon discovery of the change in criteria, management identified the students that had been impacted and sent disbursement notifications to students the next day, on July 31, 2024. Management has implemented in their control process an additional step to compare reports of Direct Loan disbursements between the Student Information and Financial Aid systems to identify any discrepancies going forward.

Federal Assistance Listing Number: 84.038 Federal Perkins Loan Program Criteria: Per 34 CFR 674.19(e)(4)(iii), after the loan obligation is satisfied, the institution shall return the original or a true and exact copy of the note marked “paid in full” to the borrower, or otherwise notify the borrower in writing that the loan is paid in full, and retain a copy for the prescribed period. Condition: For students whose Perkins loans were paid off, the College did not return the original or a true and exact copy of the note to the borrower, or otherwise notify the borrower in writing that the loan was paid in full. Cause: The College has undergone transitions in personnel in several departments, impacting the transfer of knowledge for Perkins program requirements since its termination in 2017. Effect: The College is not in compliance with the federal regulations regarding the notification as well as retention of Perkins loan records. Prevalence: The College has not made the required communication to student borrowers whose Perkins loans were paid in full. Recommendation: The College should add the procedure to, as each loan obligation is satisfied, return the original or a true and exact copy of the note marked “paid in full” to the student borrower, or otherwise notify the student in writing that the loan is paid in full, and retain a copy for the prescribed period. Management’s Response and Planned Corrective Action: The College will take corrective action with their third party service provider, University Accounting Services (UAS) to send the required communications to students with loans that have been paid in full. The College also plans to contract with UAS to send these communications to borrowers as the loans are paid off going forward.

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