Attendance
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) requires that schools are able to document that students are actually in attendance to finalize their Title IV financial aid. For example, if a student does not begin attendance in all of his or her classes, the school must recalculate the student’s award based on the lower enrollment status.
A school must demonstrate that a student participated in class or was otherwise engaged in an academically related activity such as by contributing to an online discussion or by initiating contact with a faculty member to ask a course-related question. Del Mar College documents attendance for Title IV recipients by collecting online rosters from all instructors after the census date.
The instructors use the rosters to indicate whether a student has attended class or not. If a professor reports a student as never attended/stopped attending, then Federal Pell Grant eligibility will be adjusted based on the student's enrollment status. A potential consequence of this adjustment could cause a student’s Title IV aid to be cancelled. If this adjustment results in a student not having sufficient grant funds to pay for any charges or advances that they have incurred or received, that student will be responsible to pay Del Mar College for the difference between their adjusted eligibility and the original amount of the cost of their tuition and fees as well as any advances that the student received.