[Wsssc] FW: Assisting refugee students in higher education

[Joe Holliday]

Colleagues: FYI, below and at link. Ruben will distribute it to FAC shortly as well.

                             [Joe]
[Compass]

Joe Holliday

Director, Student Services

Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges

jholliday at sbctc.edu<mailto:jholliday at sbctc.edu>* o: 360-704-4334 * f: 360-704-4418

sbctc.edu<https://www.sbctc.edu/> * Twitter: @SBCTCWashington<https://twitter.com/SBCTCWashington> * Facebook: @WASBCTC<https://www.facebook.com/wasbctc/>



From: McKibben, Bryce (HELP Committee) <Bryce_McKibben at help.senate.gov>
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2018 9:42 AM
To: 'Thompson, Becky (WSAC)' <BeckyT at wsac.wa.gov>; 'Rebecca Craig' <RCraig at jfsseattle.org>; Arlen Harris <aharris at sbctc.edu>; Joe Holliday <jholliday at sbctc.edu>; 'Clifthorne, Sarah' <Sarah.Clifthorne at leg.wa.gov>
Cc: Cornett, Jake (HELP Committee) <Jake_Cornett at help.senate.gov>; 'Hall, Adam' <Adam.Hall at leg.wa.gov>
Subject: RE: Assisting refugee students in higher education

Here is a web link to the NASFAA "tip sheets" on assisting refugee and asylee students: https://www.nasfaa.org/news-item/14869/NASFAA_Publishes_Tip_Sheets_for_Refugee_and_Asylee_Students

From: McKibben, Bryce (HELP Committee)
Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2018 11:33 AM
To: 'Thompson, Becky (WSAC)' <BeckyT at wsac.wa.gov<mailto:BeckyT at wsac.wa.gov>>; 'Rebecca Craig' <RCraig at jfsseattle.org<mailto:RCraig at jfsseattle.org>>; 'Arlen Harris' <aharris at sbctc.edu<mailto:aharris at sbctc.edu>>; Joe Holliday <jholliday at sbctc.edu<mailto:jholliday at sbctc.edu>>; 'Clifthorne, Sarah' <Sarah.Clifthorne at leg.wa.gov<mailto:Sarah.Clifthorne at leg.wa.gov>>
Cc: Cornett, Jake (HELP Committee) <Jake_Cornett at help.senate.gov<mailto:Jake_Cornett at help.senate.gov>>; 'Hall, Adam' <Adam.Hall at leg.wa.gov<mailto:Adam.Hall at leg.wa.gov>>
Subject: Assisting refugee students in higher education

Hi all,

In late 2016 we had an informative conversation with most of you about how to assist refugee students with access to federal financial aid through the FAFSA, following concerns raised by refugee assistance organizations. We made some progress then and I have more good news to share on this front now.

After our dialogue in 2016, Senator Murray's office engaged with the U.S. Department of Education under Secretary King, and they later agreed to add<https://ifap.ed.gov/fsahandbook/1718FSAHandbookErrata.html> examples of refugee situations to the Federal Student Aid Handbook<https://ifap.ed.gov/fsahandbook/1819FSAHbkAVG.html>, which is used by financial aid administrators to help answer questions about student aid eligibility. The examples in the handbook confirmed that it is possible for refugee students under the age of 24 and who are not in contact with their parents to become eligible for federal student aid. Most students would obtain this eligibility in the form of a "dependency override" after speaking with the financial aid office at the college(s) to which they are applying.

Now, in addition to this change, the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) agreed to a request from our office to create a fact sheet for both financial aid administrators working with refugee and asylee students, as well as a fact sheet for the students themselves. You can find these fact sheets attached. NASFAA has said they will provide a web link to these when they push them out to their entire membership list tomorrow-which I can share at that time.

Thanks to everyone back home who brought this issue to our attention. I hope that these resources are helpful in your efforts to assist refugee and asylee students in Washington State.

Regards,

Bryce McKibben
Senior Policy Advisor
Senate HELP Committee
Ranking Member Patty Murray
(202) 224-5501

P.S. Adam-you originally brought us together and thank you for that. Since you are in a new role now, I have added Sarah to this chain. Hope you are well!


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ctc.edu/pipermail/wsssc_lists.ctc.edu/attachments/20180411/f572986a/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 629079 bytes
Desc: image002.jpg
URL: <http://lists.ctc.edu/pipermail/wsssc_lists.ctc.edu/attachments/20180411/f572986a/attachment-0003.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image004.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 1030 bytes
Desc: image004.jpg
URL: <http://lists.ctc.edu/pipermail/wsssc_lists.ctc.edu/attachments/20180411/f572986a/attachment-0004.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image005.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 1958 bytes
Desc: image005.jpg
URL: <http://lists.ctc.edu/pipermail/wsssc_lists.ctc.edu/attachments/20180411/f572986a/attachment-0005.jpg>