Submit the topics you want discussed here!

TBA

TBA

During this session, participants will learn about VA Education Benefits. Information will be provided about each benefit, how Financial Aid works with the benefit, and how students can leverage benefits when multiple benefits are available to the student. 

Finally, we'll discuss best practices for working with military-connected students well as an overview of Green Zone training. 

TBA

TBA

There is A LOT to learn as a financial aid administrator and with constantly changing rules and regulations, it’s important to know where to go for the latest information.  There is an abundance of training materials and resources available to you and in this session, we will share a list of tools to help you succeed on the job.  You don’t have to HAVE all the answers, but you do need to know where to find them! 

TBA

TBA

The FAFSA Simplification Act changed the way Pell Grant eligibility is determined, and the July 4, 2025 Reconciliation Act changed it further. In this session we will look at the three-step process currently used to determine an applicant’s eligibility for Pell Grant (Maximum Pell, Calculated Pell, and Minimum Pell) and how these have changed for 2026-2027. We will also look at the students who are most likely impacted by the change from using AGI to using AGI plus the foreign earned income exclusion as the income factor in the Maximum and Minimum Pell Grant comparisons, and if there are ways to mitigate these changes.

  TBA

The U.S. Department of Education, Office of Inspector General (OIG) will provide a fraud awareness presentation that gives an overview of the OIG, discusses fraud risk indicators, tips on how to reduce a financial aid office’s risk for fraud, provide real case examples, and how to report fraud.

TBA

The income data we use to evaluate a student’s eligibility for Title IV funds is over a year and a half old before students receive the first bill for their first term. When the underlying assumption built into the use of prior prior year income, that for most people, income changes in moderate and predictable ways from year-to-year, breaks down, financial aid administrators can turn to professional judgment to incorporate income changes into their analysis or aid eligibility. In this session, we will look at various kinds of income changes, including permanent changes to earned or retirement income, changes that overlap with the academic year, one-time income changes, and discretionary vs. non-discretionary changes. The session will cover best practices around documentation and complying with the requirement that professional judgment be considered on a case-by-case basis.

In Dungeons & Dragons, the Dungeon Master (DM) is the guide, orchestrator, and world-builder - drawing players into the stories and scenarios they create, providing clear objectives, and helping the group overcome challenges. The DM is a champion of the players, just as a great leader champions their team. From the game room to the boardroom, the DM’s role is a living exercise in communication, adaptability, and empathy. Behind the screen, they juggle personalities, guide collaborative storytelling, resolve conflicts, and make a thousand micro-decisions in service of a shared vision - the exact skills that define modern leadership. In this session, we’ll step behind the DM screen to explore leadership lessons born at the game table. Drawing on principles of improvisation, team alignment, and adaptive problem-solving, we’ll uncover how creative facilitation and thoughtful communication can transform teams. Participants will leave with practical insights that reframe everyday leadership challenges as opportunities for storytelling, collaboration, and shared growth.

General overview of withdrawal and Return of Title IV process.  Will the new 2026-27 rule changes leave a sour taste in your mouth?

Join us for a interactive session where we will learn about the frequently asked questions that Robert encounters and time for you to ask your own!

TBA

Audit-ready doesn’t have to mean human-absent. Whether you’re an advisor or a director, the strength of your office lies in the community you build. This session introduces a relational framework designed to help every staff member navigate campus politics, block burnout, and boost retention. By prioritizing community over processing, we create a resilient, high-performance team where staff want to stay, and students succeed.

Changes are coming—Grad PLUS is going away, and Parent PLUS is getting capped starting in 2026-27. That means families may be looking at private student loans more than ever. If talking through these options isn’t something you do every day, you’re not alone. Join me for a straightforward breakdown of private student loans and how schools can best guide students and families through the new landscape.

Institutional accountability is a newer concept that we are faced with as the Budget Reconciliation Law is implemented.  Student loan repayment is becoming a proxy for institutional accountability and means more will be expected from schools and the financial aid office. Learn about the things that have gone well and the things that haven't as borrowers return to student loan repayment. Schools will also understand the changes that have occurred post-pandemic and how the new environment can impact the aid office, their institutions, and how they can help the students and borrowers we are here to serve.

With sweeping changes to student lending on the horizon, the financial aid landscape is poised for disruption. In the face of this uncertainty, students need trusted guidance more than ever—and lender lists can serve as a critical tool for colleges and universities to provide clarity, direction, and transparency in borrowing decisions.

Many institutions have long-standing concerns about compliance and conflict-of-interest provisions stemming from the changes to our industry over 15 years ago. While those changes did reinforce protections against unethical lending practices, that legacy has led some schools to avoid hosting lender lists altogether.

This session will explore how institutions can confidently re-engage in offering lender guidance in a compliant, student-focused manner. We'll provide actionable strategies for developing responsible lender lists, and underscore why now is the moment for schools to step up as trusted navigators in a fast-changing lending environment.

Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) remains one of the most complex and consequential components of financial aid administration. In this dynamic panel discussion, seasoned financial aid leaders will unpack the challenges institutions face in implementing SAP policies while supporting student success. Panelists will explore best practices for evaluating academic performance, managing appeals, communicating requirements clearly, and balancing regulatory compliance with compassionate student-centered approaches. Attendees will gain practical insights, real-world strategies, and fresh perspectives to strengthen their institution’s SAP processes and better guide students on their path to completion. 

A lively, competitive trivia experience inspired by Jeopardy! Choose categories, pick clues, and race to respond in question form. This session blends strategy, speed, and teamwork for an engaging group challenge.

An understanding of how the FAFSA data come together to become the Student Aid Index is important for financial aid administrators to understand, especially when it comes to professional judgment. In this session, we will review hypotheticals request from students for an adjustment based on changes to their or their family member’s income or assets – and learn how to estimate the impact the change would have on the student’s aid eligibility if we decided to use professional judgment to account for the change. Understanding this process can help FAAs manage their appeal workload, since many requests from students and parents, even if a professional judgment is warranted, will not result in a change to the student’s federal aid eligibility or create Pell eligibility. Let’s see if we can predict in advance whether the adjustment the student or parent is requesting will result in more funding for the student.

TBA

Since the transition to prior-prior year in 2015, the (former) spouses of more applicants than ever are not required to provide information on the applicant’s FAFSA due to the couple falling out of love, or the loss of a spouse or parent. If an applicant or FAFSA contributor filed a joint tax return in the base year but their (former) spouse is not required to provide information on the FAFSA for the academic year, the IRS DRT (2023-2024) and the FUTURE Act Direct Data Exchange (FADDX) (2024-2025) will not work. The applicant or contributor will manually enter their tax information into the FAFSA. In this session, we will work through the process of extracting an individual person’s FAFSA data from a jointly filed tax return, something required when an applicant is selected for V1 verification or requests a special circumstances professional judgment based on the death of a spouse or parent or the dissolution of the marriage of a FAFSA contributor.

TBA

TBA

Behind every financial aid package is a Cost of Attendance—but how confident are you in yours? This session breaks down the process of building, reviewing, and maintaining COA in a way that is both compliant and realistic for today’s students. We’ll cover what to include (and what not to), how to document your decisions, and where institutions commonly get tripped up. Expect real-world examples, practical tips, and a few “don’t do this” moments along the way.

Although the Student Aid Index (SAI) and Maximum and Minimum Pell Grant eligibility rules are critically important when determining a student’s eligibility for Title IV aid, many financial aid administrators (FAAs) do not understand how these calculations work. MASFAA (Massachusetts) introduced an SAI Hand Calculation contest at its 2024 annual conference, and both CASFAA (California) and MASFAA included the contest at their 2025 conferences. Contestants are given ISIR data, the SAI Formula Guide calculation sheets, the SAI Formula tables, the “Applicant Required to Report Assets” rules, and, depending on the time allotted for the contest, the base year poverty guideline tables, and challenged to determine an applicant’s SAI, and eligibility for Maximum and Minimum Pell grant as quickly as possible.

TBA

Join us for some insight into the road ahead with NPRM and possible impacts.