Education Department Releases Additional Guidance for 90/10 Rule

The U.S. Education Department is updating the list of federal education assistance funds that proprietary institutions have to include in their calculations of federal revenue.

By law, for-profit colleges and universities have to bring in 10 percent of their revenue from non-federal sources. Initially, federal money from the GI Bill and Department of Defense were not considered a federal source until Congress changed the law in March 2021 as part of the American Rescue Plan Act. The department issued final regulations for that change in October, which will go into effect July 1 of next year.

The department released a list Friday of federal education assistance funds for qualifying students included in the federal revenue calculation for fiscal years beginning on or after Jan. 1.

The funds include the GI Bill and military tuition assistance.

“Information obtained by the Department indicated that most education assistance funds are disbursed directly to an institution for specific students, and, therefore, the institution should be aware of and able to account for these funds,” the federal notice states.