CSWE Government Relations (GR) is sharing the below educational resource on the recent Gainful Employment (GE) and Financial Value Transparency regulations from the U.S. Department of Education (ED) that went into effect this past July.
In May 2023, the U.S. Department of Education (ED), in an effort to increase accountability and transparency within the postsecondary sector, announced a nearly 1,000-page notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to restart the Gainful Employment (GE) regulations which included increasing transparency to the true cost and financial outcomes of almost all undergraduate and graduate degree programs. While the GE regulations will primarily impact proprietary institutions, new disclosure and certification requirements will be increased for all institutions of higher education. The new financial value transparency framework applies to all Title IV, HEA eligible programs. The framework also includes the same earnings premium, and debt-to-earnings ratio used to determine Title IV eligibility for GE programs. Graduate degree and post-baccalaureate certificate programs that fail the threshold will be required to notify prospective students, who will be required to acknowledge viewing this information before entering into enrollment agreements with an institution. These new regulations particularly affect social work degree programs whose true cost is difficult to calculate. Though increased financial transparency is helpful for students to discern what career to pursue, it can also needlessly discourage students from pursuing public service careers such as social work simply based off a "true cost" calculation that does not account for many different career paths and opportunities that a social work degree can offer.
During the open comment period before the final rules were published last year, CSWE voiced concerns on the impact these new rules could have on the future of social work, specifically, the potential impact that the debt to earnings calculations would have on social work programs that attract a diverse student population that is eager to focus on social and economic justice and serve the public good. As a result, CSWE successfully expanded the period of research and determination of earnings for this degree program from three to six years. It is expected that this expanded timeline will foster a greater understanding of the true cost of social work degrees and decrease the number of students that may be dissuaded from pursuing this vital career.
The new rules went into effect July 1 of this year. With some continued pushback from various organizations and some congressional members on implementation of these reporting requirements, CSWE will continue to advocate for regulations that support social work careers, and express concerns over regulations that could negatively impact social workers and social work programming.
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Natalia Ibarra
Lewis-Burke Associates
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