The U.S. Department of Education (ED) has sought to establish a definition of Gainful Employment (GE) for over a decade, and in more recent years, we’ve seen regulatory whiplash as priorities and opinions change. An initial attempt to establish a rule by the Obama administration was thrown out in a…
By now, you have likely heard about the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) program, a government incentive for businesses to retain employees throughout the Covid 19 pandemic. It was created by the CARES Act and extended and altered by successive pieces of coronavirus relief legislation. The ERTC has provided massive…
Less than two weeks before it was set to end, the COVID-19 national emergency was extended by President Joe Biden. Citing ongoing public health and safety risks presented by the pandemic, the declaration published in the Federal Register on February 18, 2022, continues the emergency beyond its March 1, 2022,…
As postsecondary institutions nationwide continue to contend with hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and seek to assist their students, the Department of Education (ED) is reopening the application period for Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds, as well as a supplementary program. According to an ED notice, eligible institutions have…
The chief responsibility of the Department of Education’s (ED) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is to detect waste, fraud and abuse — intentional or not — within ED and the institutions under its purview. Its recently released 2022 Annual Plan provides a roadmap and points of emphasis regarding that…
If they have yet to do so this year, qualifying employers can still take advantage of one of the CARES Act’s major benefits — the employee retention tax credit (ERTC). Enacted with the 2020 coronavirus relief legislation and since extended through 2021, it is meant to help businesses that retained…
Institutions have one last chance to comment on the Department of Education’s (ED) proposed changes to the annual reporting form for Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) grants. ED released its response to the first round of public comments earlier this month, adopting some changes after commenters’ input and declining…
From discussions with various clients, for-profit institutions are receiving the following email in regard to future audits of their Higher Education Emergency Relief Funding (HEERF) grants and these emails are causing confusion: To: Department of Education Grant Recipients From: Phillip Juengst, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Acquisition and Grants Administration…