Transcript Enrollment Certifications-Avoiding Common Errors

ENROLLMENT CERTIFICATIONS
AVOIDING COMMON ERRORS
VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION
October 2015
Objective
Upon conclusion of this training you will be able
to identify and avoid common certification
errors.
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Avoiding Common Errors
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Definitions
VA file number
Adding students in VA-Once
Type of training
Program name
Enrollment periods
Credit
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Avoiding Common Errors
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Tuition, fees and/or yellow ribbon
Remarks
Graduations
Amending the benefit type
Amending terminations
Paper copy enrollment certifications
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Definitions
• Amend
Used to change begin date, end date, tuition & fees, Yellow
Ribbon, add a remark, advance pay and accelerated pay
requests on a certification already submitted
• Adjust
Used to report an increase or decrease in credit or clock
hours
• Terminate
Used to report a complete withdrawal from an enrollment
period, or to report graduation or program completion
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Adding Students to VA-Once
• If you are adding a student that already exists in VAOnce and enter the incorrect SSN, a duplicate file is
created. Files can’t be merged.
• Verify the SSN
• See “Help” tab for instructions on what to do if an
incorrect SSN is entered.
• Transfer of Entitlement Students
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Type Of Training
• Indicate the appropriate “Training Type” for the
student’s program.
IHL Undergrad
IHL Grad
NCD
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Program Name
• The program of education certified must be a program offered
by your school and approved for VA benefits
• WEAMS – VA Form 22-1998
• Name reflected in school’s catalog if degree is at a deemed
approved facility
• Should be reported as stated in your approval notification
• Undeclared Major
• Non-matriculated Students
• Guest Student
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Undeclared Major
• Students pursuing a bachelor’s degree may not have
to declare a major before their junior year at some
schools.
• Report the student as “Bachelor Undeclared.” The
student cannot be certified beyond his or her
sophomore year unless a major is declared.
• Only “General Education” courses can be certified
prior to the declaration of a major.
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Non-Matriculated Student
• Non-Matriculated student:
 Has not been formally admitted to a college or university as a
degree-seeking student.
 Can only be certified if they are pending admission to your
school and may only be certified as non-matriculated for 2
semesters or 3 quarters.
• Certify a non-matriculated student as “Bachelor (nonmatriculated)” or “Post- baccalaureate (non-matriculated).”
• The only courses that can be certified are those required for
admission and those required if admitted.
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Guest Student
• Guest student (Concurrent Enrollments)
• A student may take courses at more than one
school that apply to his or her degree.
Primary school
Secondary school
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Enrollment Periods
• Certify the correct beginning and ending dates.
• For each quarter or semester the beginning date will be the
official begin date of the academic term and the ending date
will be the last day of final exams.
• If a course doesn't follow this standard format, certify the
actual begin date and actual end date for the course(s)
certified.
• Courses with different beginning and/or ending dates should
be reported separately.
• Courses not beginning during the first scheduled calendar
week should be certified using the actual first day of class.
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Enrollment Periods
What Beginning Date Must A School Report to VA?
Example: The scheduled beginning date of the term is a
Friday however classes do not begin until the following
Monday. Which date should the SCO use to certify as the
beginning date?
• Schools generally should report the first scheduled date of
classes for the quarter or semester in which the student is
enrolled. Exception:
First Day of Classes Delayed. Some courses may begin after the
calendar week that the term, quarter, or semester is scheduled to
begin. Schools should report the actual date classes for such courses
begin.
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Enrollment Periods - Non-College Degree
Institutions
If a program is measured in clock hours, benefits are paid based on clock hours of
attendance per week. The beginning date, ending date, and number of clock
hours a student is scheduled to attend each week must be reported. If clock hours
per week vary and the benefit amount is affected, the variance must be reported
for calendar weeks, Sunday through Saturday, between the beginning and ending
dates.
Do not submit adjustments for absences that are allowed within the schools
approved attendance policy. You may not extend enrollment for students who
need additional hours simply because of absences. However, if a student failed a
portion of the course and has to repeat it, that portion may be re-certified as long
as the student continues to meet the Standards of Progress.
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Credit
Only courses that satisfy requirements outlined by the
curriculum guide or graduation evaluation form can be
certified for VA purposes. If a student takes a course
that does not fulfill a program requirement, it cannot
be certified for VA purposes
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Tuition and Fees
Tuition is the actual established charges the student is required to pay.
Tuition is defined in the school’s catalog or supplement and listed as
tuition on the school’s billing statement or invoice.
Chapters 30, 32, 35, 1606, and 1607
• Less than ½-time
• Active duty
• Accelerated payment is requested
If none of these conditions apply, tuition and fees do not have to be
reported and you can enter 0 in tuition and in fees.
If you certify overlapping enrollment periods report tuition and fees for
any enrollment period that’s less than ½-time by itself.
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Tuition and Fees
Chapter 33
• Report the tuition and fees listed on the student’s
invoice. If the student receives a tuition specific
discount, then you MUST deduct the discounted
monies from the tuition certified.
• If a discount is applied after certification, an
amended certification must be submitted, reporting
the reduced tuition/fees with the applied discount.
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Tuition and Fees
Fees
• Fees are mandatory charges (other than tuition, room
and board) applied by the school for pursuit of an
approved program of education. Fees include, but are
not limited to, health premiums, freshman fees,
graduation fees, and lab fees.
• Fees do not include study abroad course(s) unless the
course(s) is a mandatory requirement for completion of
the approved program of education.
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Tuition and Fees
Fees that are not allowed include, but are not limited to:
– Penalty fees (e.g., late registration, late course changes,
returned checks, repeat course fees)
– Add/drop course fees
– Parking fees that are not required for every student
– Fees for any food or lodging expenses, meal ticket fees
– Overload fees for course loads that require special permission
– Transportation/transit system fees that are not required of
every student
– Application for admission fees
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Yellow Ribbon
The Chapter drop down menu on a student’s VA-Once
BIO screen includes 33 and 33 Yellow selections. If your
school participates in the Chapter 33 Yellow Ribbon
Program and the student will be a Yellow Ribbon
participant “select 33 Yellow” (select 33 if the student
will not participate in the Yellow Ribbon Program).
Enter the amount the school will contribute. The
amount entered must be greater than zero.
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Remarks
Unnecessary non-standard remarks delay processing by
preventing automation.
Examples:
Submitting amendment to correct start date
Amending tuition/fees
Tuition/fees will be certified later
Student enrolled in ENG 101
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Remarks
• The VA Standard Remarks “Submitting tuition and fees” and
Correcting tuition and fees only” are only in VA-Once because so
many schools were putting variations of these in the remarks.
Standardizing the remark allowed VA to automate processing.
• The VA Standard Remark “Compliance Survey Referral. Upon
completion of award send overpayment or underpayment amount
to (enter email address of ELR/ECSS/SAA)
Use this remark when making compliance survey corrections.
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Graduation
• Graduations or program completions must be reported on a
Notice of Change in Student Status (22-1999b) at the end of
the term.
• If the student is graduating from a degree program,
“Graduation” should be selected as the termination reason.
• If the student is completing a Non-College Degree program,
“End of term or Course” should be selected as the
termination reason. The last day of the term selected will
be pre-populated as the date of termination.
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Amending Benefit Type
Do not re-submit the same term under a different chapter.
The RPO can determine the correct chapter regardless of
the benefit under which it was submitted. Change the Bio
page so the next term will be under the correct chapter.
The exception to this is if you need to submit a Yellow
Ribbon Amount.
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Amending Terminations
• In VA-Once, when a certification is terminated, no changes can be
made to that certification.
• The SCO should submit a new enrollment for the same period.
The certification should contain the following remark –
“Correcting previously terminated enrollment. Notice of Change
in Student Status(s) to follow.”
• This remark has been added to the list of VBA Standard Remarks
in VA-Once.
• The SCO should immediately submit all changes to that term so
that all documents are received in The Image Management
System (TIMS) concurrently.
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Paper Enrollment Certifications
Get VA-ONCE to avoid delays.
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Questions?
GI Bill® is a registered trademark of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The absence of the registration symbol ® does not
constitute a waiver of VA's trademark rights in that phrase.
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