SRTC Attendance & Withdrawal Workflow Template

The Financial Aid Office works in conjunction with the Registrar’s office to ensure proper dates and withdrawal codes are used for the official withdrawal process. Students that have submitted an official withdrawal form are identified and reviewed by the Registrar’s Office.

Once all data has been reviewed, the Financial Aid Office processes the Return to Title IV calculations and makes the necessary adjustments, if applicable. Students that have earned aid beyond the 60% point of the semester will have earned 100% of Title IV aid disbursed for the semester. Any refund owed to a federal financial aid program is the student’s responsibility and will appear as a charge on the student’s BannerWeb student account. Students can view this adjustment on their student BannerWeb account. The College will return its portion of the students ‘unearned’ Title IV based on the College’s Return to Title IV Policy.

Recommended Process Flow

• Semester/Term Ends
• College runs report to find all students who did not earn a passing grade in at least one (1) course during the semester. Report should include last day of academic participation (LDA) provided by instructor when they input an ‘F’ grade in Blackboard.
• Registrar sorts students on list by LDA, and processes all students who did not complete at least 50% of their term of enrollment as a midpoint withdrawal. Registrar removes these students from list and sends it to Vice President for Academic Affairs (VPAA) for validation of students LDA greater than 50%.
• Academic department receives list of all students who did not earn credit and have reported LDA’s as greater than 50% of their term and validates LDA’s with faculty and/or Blackboard.
• Once the LDA report is completed, the report is sent back to the registrar with notations on whether the date could be substantiated, and if not, provide the true LDA of the student. College is encouraged to require documentation be provided by Academics and, for any changes made to a student’s LDA be documented and kept on file or accessible via Blackboard.
• Registrar processes remaining students based on the validated dates/documentation provided by Academics. If LDA has changed to before the midpoint, college may continue to use the midpoint withdrawal as it is more advantageous to a student. If the LDA cannot be validated, use midpoint withdrawal.
• If student persisted through course and earned their ‘F’ grade, no withdrawal record is necessary. Any student who did not persist through to the end of at least one (1) course must have a withdrawal record entered by the registrar.
• Financial Aid receives the final confirmation and processes a Return to Title IV calculation for students based on their validated LDA’s or midpoint determination.

Registrar & Academic Departments have 30 days from the end of the term to verify LDA’s and process the withdrawal record.

Unofficial Withdrawal

Students who stop attending class but do not officially withdraw are considered to be unofficially withdrawn. All students who unofficially withdraw before the midpoint of the term will be assigned an unofficial withdrawal date identified as the 50% point of the term. Students with documented participation beyond the midpoint of the term may be assigned a later withdrawal date.

Students who disagree with the midpoint calculation and can provide evidence that their participation extended past the 50% point, can submit an appeal to the Vice President for Academic Affairs. Students have up to 10 business days to challenge the return of federal aid due to a reported lack of participation. Upon receipt of the appeal, the Vice President for Academic Affairs will review the appeal within 10 business days and notify the student and the Financial Aid Office. The Financial Aid Office will notify the student of any adjustments made to his/her account and aid eligibility. The College will adjust its portion of the student’s ‘earned’ Title IV based on the College’s Return to Title IV Policy.

Students who stop attending class, but do not formally withdraw, may receive a grade of ‘F’ and could face financial aid and/or Satisfactory Academic Progress repercussions in the upcoming semesters. Unless otherwise specified in a program/course of attendance procedure as required by the program accreditation/licensing agency, students will not be withdrawn by an instructor for attendance.

Last Date of Academically Related Participation Guidelines

The last date of academically related participation (LDA) is to appropriately assess the academic standards and financial eligibility for students. The LDA will be documented by the instructor/faculty. An academically related activity is demonstrated through active participation (simply logging into an online class is not considered active participation). Academically related activities include, but are not limited to the following:

• Physically attending a class where there is an opportunity for direct interaction between the instructor and students;
• Submitting a current academic assignment;b
• Completing an exam, an interactive tutorial, or computer-assisted instruction;
• participating in an online discussion within a course; or,

Initiating contact with a faculty member to ask questions or receive assistance about the academic subject studied in the course.

Responsibility:
The Vice President for Academic Affairs has the overall responsibility for ensuring this procedure is implemented.

Status:
Adopted: 06-06-2023