BOGW application - Homeless questions

Kim_Covell
Kim_Covell Member
edited July 2017 in CCC Promise Grant Application
BOGW Residency Status Page - Homeless question

We have noticed some issues with the homeless question.

First, The questions asks the student if they have been verified homeless by the Financial Aid Office.   If the student has been verified, they would mark "YES".  However, if they are not verified, they are still directed to mark "YES".  Should not the student mark "NO"?   It is a bit misleading and seems to indicate that there is not a situation where a student would mark "NO".

Also, the words "Contact the Financial Aid Office" do not seem to indicate that a BOGW would not be awarded as a result of this question.

Second, when a student answers "YES" to this question, they are not presented with any of the subsequent screens for dependency or eligibility.  If they select "NO", they will see these questions.

Why?  Applications that are submitted without the information that a student would provide on these screens causes the incoming BOGW data to be incomplete.  This requires a user to physically adjust the record in our system and have to verify this data with the student.  

Because of the lack of "urgency" in the question directions a student may not contact the Financial Aid Office immediately.  During a registration cycle, for a school that processes a nightly drop for non-payment, this student could be dropped from their courses because they did not know how they answer this question could impact their BOGW being awarded.

Please advise.

Rick Reffner
Kimberly Covell

Comments

  • Patty
    Patty
    edited July 2017
    Hi Kim and Rick,

    These are all valid questions. Unfortunately, we'll have to forward them to the Chancellor's Office team* for response. Here's why...

    The CCCApply's development team implements the annual changes the BOG Fee Waiver application exactly as directed, per the specific requirements specified from the Chancellor's Office.  

    Each year when the CCCCO announces/releases the official "approved" BOG paper application, we receive a version with each change highlighted and our specifications are to implement those changes requirements, verbatim. In addition, we meet with the FA representatives to confirm functional changes.

    This year, in addition to the text / language changes, and the new homeless question added to the Application Year page, we were instructed to add skip logic to expedite the process IF the student self-reports "Yes" to the new homeless youth question(s). The CCCCO is focused on supporting students by removing barriers and explained that, based on the Yes response to that question (and I'm assuming some form of physical verification or proof presented to the college) the student would be eligible solely based on that status.

    The CCCCO representative that we work with on the BOG Fee Waiver application changes is Tim Bonnel, Financial Aid Specialist.  Please bring your concerns (change requests) to his attention and if approved, we will begin planning for the next release.

    Thank you,
    Patty 

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