Federal Return of Title IV Aid (R2T4) and Withdraws

Title IV funds are awarded to a student under the assumption that the student will attend for the entire period for which the assistance is awarded.  Students who receive federal funds as part of their aid package and who either officially or unofficially withdraw from all classes during a semester, may be required to return all or a portion of those funds.

The law specifies how the College must determine the amount of Title IV program assistance that you earn if you withdraw from school. The Title IV programs that are covered by this law, offered at WVNCC are: Federal Pell Grants, Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grants, Direct Loans, Direct PLUS Loans, and Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (FSEOGs). In addition, the WV Higher Education Policy Commission requires use of the same policy for the WV Higher Education Grant and WV Invests Grant.

Though your aid is posted to your account at the start of the term, you earn funds as you complete the semester. If you withdraw during the semester (see withdraw definitions below), the amount of Title IV program assistance that you earned up to that point is determined by a specific formula. If you received less assistance than the amount that you earned, you may be eligible to receive those additional funds. If you received more assistance than you earned, the excess funds must be returned by the school and/or you.

 The amount of assistance that you have earned is determined on a pro rata basis. For example, if you completed 30% of the semester, you earn 30% of the assistance you were originally scheduled to receive. Once you have completed more than 60% of the semester, you earn all the assistance that you were scheduled to receive for the semester.  If you receive excess Title IV program funds that must be returned, the College will return a portion of the excess equal to the lesser of:

1.  Your institutional charges multiplied by the unearned percentage of your funds, or
2. The entire amount of excess funds.

The College must return this amount even if we didn’t keep this amount of your Title IV program funds. If the College is not required to return all of the excess funds, then you must return the remaining amount.

Any loan funds that you must return, you (or your parent for a Direct PLUS Loan) repay in accordance with the terms of the loan promissory note (MPN). That is, you make scheduled payments to the loan servicer over a period of time. For more information on student loan information, go to: https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/repayment/plans.  

Any amount of unearned grant funds that you must return is called an overpayment. The maximum amount of a grant overpayment that you must repay is half of the grant funds you received or were scheduled to receive. You do not have to repay a grant overpayment if the original amount of the overpayment is $50 or less. You must make arrangements with the school or the Department of Education to return the unearned grant funds.

The College must return Title IV funds to the federal aid programs from which you received aid during the payment period as applicable, in the following order, up to the net amount disbursed from each source: 

• Unsubsidized Direct Loans
• Subsidized Direct Loans
• Direct PLUS Loans
• Federal Pell Grants for which a Return is required
• Federal Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants (FSEOG)
• Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant

The requirements for the Title IV program funds when you withdraw are separate from any refund policy that we offer. Therefore, you may still owe funds to the school to cover unpaid institutional charges. WVNCC will also charge you for any Title IV program funds that we were required to return. You can find our tuition refund policy earlier in this section under Tuition Refunds.  The Financial Aid Office will advise you by mail of the amount of Title IV aid adjusted.  If you owe a balance to the college, the Business Office will notify you of your balance due and repayment options.  Failure to satisfy the amount owed in a timely manner will result in a financial hold being placed on your WVNCC records, and your obligation due turned over to our Collections Agency.

Please realize that you are not eligible to receive any financial aid if you:

• withdraw prior to the first day of the semester, or prior to the first day of class for classes beginning later in the semester, or
• have no record of class attendance or participation at all for a semester, or
• are approved for a 100% reversal of your tuition and fee charges after the beginning of a semester.

In these instances, all grant, loan, and scholarship assistance that was credited to your WVNCC Student account for the semester will be adjusted and returned to the U.S. Department of Education, and the resulting balance due WVNCC must be repaid.

Post-Withdrawal Disbursements

If you do not receive all of the funds that you earned, you may be due a post-withdrawal disbursement. Any Title IV grant funds a student is due as part of a post-withdrawal disbursement will be disbursed within 45 days of the date the school determined the student withdrew.  If your post-withdrawal disbursement includes loan funds, we must receive your permission before it can be disbursed. The school will offer any accepted post-withdraw disbursement of loan funds within 30 days of the date the school determined the student withdrew. The school will notify the student of thier eligibility for a post-withdrawal disbursement of loan funds, and the student will have 14 days to respond with thier acceptance or denial of the loan funds. You may choose to decline some or all of the loan funds so that you don’t incur additional debt. We will automatically use all or a portion of your post-withdrawal disbursement of grant funds for tuition, fees, and books and supplies charges.

There are some Title IV funds that you were scheduled to receive that cannot be disbursed to you once you withdraw because of other eligibility requirements. For example, if you are a first-time, first year undergraduate student and you have not completed the first 30 days of your program before you withdraw, you will not receive any Direct Loan funds that you would have received had you remained enrolled past the 30th day.

Withdrawing or Ceasing to Attend Class

If you withdraw from school “officially” (drop your courses online through your NOW account or contact student services) or “unofficially” (stop attending and do not successfully complete ANY course with an A, B, C, or D) before the term is completed, and you receive federal student aid, a Return of Funds Calculation (R2T4) is required to be performed. This calculation may result in a portion of aid being returned to the U.S. Department of Education. You may then owe a balance to the College. Any balance still outstanding 45 days or greater will be turned over to our Collections Agency unless a payment plan has been established with WVNCC’s Business Office.

Official Withdraws To officially withdraw, you must use your NOW account online, or contact student services.

Unofficial Withdraws If you do not successfully complete any course with an A, B, C, or D, you will be considered unofficially withdrawn and your Title IV aid may be recalculated based on your last day of attendance in those courses. If a last date of attendance cannot be determined, the R2T4 calculation will be taken back to the 50% point in the term if proof is not available that the student attended an academically related activity after the 60% point in at least one course. The final burden of proof of attendance is required of the student.

Flex Classes 

Effective July 1, 2021, federal regulations governing the R2T4 federal aid policy have changed with regard to students who enrolled only in “flex” or “modular” classes (e.g. – classes meeting less than 16-weeks in length) during a semester. Based on these regulations, when a student is enrolled in flex classes, an R2T4 calculation must be performed whenever a student withdraws (officially or unofficially) from all classes which are meeting at that time, regardless of whether or not the student has already passed/completed a class in an earlier flex class within the semester or if they are enrolled in a class which has not yet begun within the semester unless a student completes a combination of modules that equals 49% or more countable days in the payment period. In addition, a student is not considered withdrawn if the student successfully completes half-time enrollment for the payment period.  Such a calculation can be avoided if the student enrolls in a class which has not yet begun with the semester and the student provides written notification to the Financial Aid Office of their intention to remain enrolled in that class and to attend that class.

Balances Due

Keep in mind that when Title IV funds are returned, the student borrower may owe a balance to the institution. Funds owed back to the U.S. Department of Education will be turned over to U.S. Department of Education collections at the 45 day point if not paid in full. Funds owed the institution will be sent through the College’s collection process if repayment is not made according to the business office policy. WVNCC requires students to make financial arrangements for any outstanding balance prior to registering for the next term or obtaining any

services (such as official transcripts, etc). The Return of Funds policy requires, by federal law that students must satisfy the amount owed the federal programs before they may re-enroll in any college.

Credit Balances

If a R2T4 calculation results in a credit baalnce being owed to the student, the balance will be released to the student within 14 days of the date the recalculation is performed.