• Reviews are conducted approximately every 2 to 3 years.
• Institution policies and practices are reviewed, as well as a sample of student accounts, for one designated award year.
• A routine review takes approximately 1-3 days to complete.
• Findings report is emailed to the President of the institution and the Director of Financial Aid will be provided with a copy. For SWSP community employers, the letter is emailed to the primary contact for the organization.
• The institution must respond to and resolve any findings within 30 days of the initial report or request an extension. This includes making all required refunds.

PA State Grant: 30-45 files. For institutions with less than 30 files, 100% of the files will be reviewed.

Special Programs: Ten records per program or 100% of all records if there are less than 10. If only special programs are being reviewed, PHEAA staff may adjust the sample size.

• Review is conducted the following year after a previous year yielded a PA Grant error rate that exceeded the acceptable limit (4%) or four or more administration findings were cited.*
• PHEAA reserves the right to conduct a follow-up review regardless of the error rate or numbers of findings.
• Institution policies and practices are reviewed, as well as a sample of student accounts, for one designated award year.
• Review takes approximately 1-3 days to complete.
• Findings report is emailed to the President of the institution and the Director of Financial Aid will be provided with a copy. For PA SWSP community employers, the letter will be emailed to the primary contact of the organization.
• The institution must respond to and resolve any findings within 30 days of the initial report or request an extension. This includes remitting all required refunds.

PA State Grant: 30-45 files. For institutions with less than 30 files, 100% of the files will be reviewed.

Special Programs: Ten records per program or 100% of all records if there are less than 10. If only special programs are being reviewed, PHEAA staff may adjust the sample size.

• Review is conducted for institutions that, for a second year in a row, have an error rate greater than 8.9%*.
• Institution policies and practices are reviewed, as well as a sample of student accounts, for one designated award year.
• Review takes approximately 1-3 days to complete.
• Findings report is emailed to the President of the institution and the Director of Financial Aid will be provided with a copy.
• The institution must respond and resolve any findings within 30 days of the initial report or request an extension. This includes making all required refunds.

PA State Grant: 30-45 files. For institutions with less than 30 files, 100% of the files will be reviewed.

Special Programs: Ten records per program or 100% of all records if there are less than 10. If only special programs are being reviewed, PHEAA staff may adjust the sample size.

• Review is conducted when an institution closes or loses eligibility, and scheduled by PHEAA within 30 days of closure date or loss of eligibility date.
• More than one academic year can be reviewed, if applicable, and the timeframe of the review will be determined by the number of files.
• Findings report is emailed to the President of the institution and the Director of Financial Aid will be provided with a copy. For PA SWSP community employers, the letter will be emailed to the primary contact of the organization.
• The institution must respond and resolve any findings within 10 days of the initial report or request an extension. This includes making all required refunds.

100% of student files and will encompass the PA State Grant and all Special Programs.

• An audit is conducted when there is reported or suspected fraud at the institution. The audit may be unannounced.

Sample size is at PHEAA’s discretion but typically includes 100% of student files, including both PA State Grant and all Special Programs.