SHEFA said establishing deadlines will close out the disbursement cycle in a timely manner.
It will also eliminate interruptions to the application review process in the current financial assistance cycle.
SHEFA Administrator Henry Hofschneider has recommended that the deadlines should be not later than November 30 for fall term, and not later than April 30 for spring term.
The deadlines, he said, should provide ample time for the SHEFA office to complete all review of applications and supporting documents to determine eligibility.
He said November 30 and April 30 are after the deadlines to submit supporting documents, and should be sufficient to consider ineligibility cases and still submit check requests for any reversals.
“Contested cases involving decision of ineligibility that go up to the [SHEFA] board on appeal and are later reversed should be considered on a case-to-case basis,” Hofshchneider said.
He noted that in the past few months since the last deadline for the fall term, they received numerous requests from applicants for another review of their application because they believed they should have been determined eligible to receive incentive and field of study awards.
Those requests, he said, should be considered untimely and will make the disbursement process inefficient.
He said late requests are disruptive when they are received months after the disbursement cycle has started.
