Return of Title IV and State Funds Policy

Any student who receives Federal Financial Aid (Title IV aid) and withdraws from all classes may be required to return Federal Financial Aid. Students who attend more than 60% of the term are considered to have fully earned their financial aid. However, students who did not attend classes until the 60% point of the term, have unearned financial aid that will need to be returned to the U.S. Department of Education (ED). The percent of the semester completed and correspondingly the percentage of aid earned, is calculated by taking the calendar days attended by the student, divided by the total number of calendar days in the term. If the R2T4 calculation results in an amount to be returned that exceeds the school’s portion, the student must repay some funds. FDLTCC returns all funds to ED, then bills the student for the amount returned.

For students who have unearned financial aid, it will be returned in the following order:

1. Unsubsidized Direct Loan (Unsub)
2. Subsidized Direct Loan (Sub)
3. Federal PLUS Loans (PLUS)
4. Federal Pell Grants (Pell)
5. Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (FSEOG)
6. Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grants

Official Withdrawal

When the student officially withdraws from all courses after the semester begins, the Financial Aid Office will use the date on the Total Withdraw Form to determine the portion of the Federal Title IV aid earned (or could have been earned).

Unofficial Withdrawal

A student is said to have “Unofficially Withdrawn” if they stop attending and receive failing grades in all classes. For a student who has been determined to have unofficially withdrawn, the date of withdrawal for purposes of the Return of Title IV refund calculation is the latest date attended (last date of attendance or LDA) reported by faculty for that term.

Timeframe for R2T4

Federal regulation requires the college to calculate the Return to Title IV refunds within 30 days of determining an official or unofficial withdrawal date. Federal regulation requires the college to refund the Title IV funds determined to be unearned to the U.S. Department of Education (ED) within 45 days of determining an official or unofficial withdrawal date.

Post Withdrawal Disbursement

If there is a credit balance, it must be disbursed as soon as possible and no later than 14 days after the calculation of R2T4. In some cases, a student may withdraw from all courses before aid has been disbursed. A post withdrawal disbursement is done when a student shows they have withdrawn from all their classes prior to financial aid disbursement but began attendance in all courses and are qualified for some (earned) aid. For Title IV grant eligibility only, the earned portion of the grant is disbursed to the student account and a letter is sent to student to notify them of their eligibility and right to return funds within 45 days of the date the school determined the student withdrew.

For loan eligibility, a notice is sent to the students before any funding will be processed. The student must tell the college if they want it disbursed to them directly or to their student account. Loan funds accepted by the student will be disbursed within 180 days of the date the school determined the student withdrew.

State Funds

If the student who totally withdrew (officially or unofficially) from classes received State financial aid funding from programs administered by the MN Office of Higher Education, a portion of the unearned funds must be returned if the total withdrawal took place within the first 20 business days of the semester (full semester classes).  Refunds for state aid programs are calculated on a proportional basis using the MN Office of Higher Education’s Refund Calculation Worksheet.

Registration and refund related policies can be found on the Registration Policies Page.