Office of Higher Education policies, financial-aid protections and tuition-language added to bill

Committee members considered Senate File 3943 and an A3 amendment that incorporates multiple Office of Higher Education policy changes; the committee adopted the amendment package including an oral amendment and laid the bill over for further consideration.

Nikki Oliver, director of government relations and community engagement for the Minnesota Office of Higher Education, told the committee the A3 amendment incorporates governor budget policy recommendations and technical updates. The changes include updates to work-study statutes, clarifications to the 5-to-9 college savings plan about dormant accounts and outreach to account owners, and statutory cleanups to reporting references.

The amendment also modifies dual-training grant eligibility by allowing otherwise eligible accredited bachelor's-level programs to be majority-asynchronous rather than predominately instructor-led, a change requested by the Department of Labor and Industry and some employers.

"We're strengthening our student financial aid protections," Oliver said, explaining A3 would add state-level language to bar individuals found to have committed fraud in state programs from accessing state financial aid, aligning state rules more closely with existing federal fraud prohibitions.

Oliver called Miriam Cullimore, student parent and whole-family coordinator at OHE, to explain clarifying language related to pregnancy and parenting students. Cullimore said institutions requested clarity about what benefits and services must be provided to pregnant students and that the statute leans on institutions' existing short-term disability and medical-leave policies; where students lacked accommodations, existing Title IX processes have been used.

The committee also considered an oral amendment to change language to "a student eligible for a resident tuition rate, or its equivalent." The committee adopted the oral amendment to the A3 amendment by voice vote and then adopted the amendment to the bill as amended. The bill as amended was laid over.

Clarifying details: A3 includes technical statutory cleanups to reporting and resident-versus-resident-student language, expands allowable delivery modes for some dual-training grant programs, adds state-level financial-aid fraud language, and updates licensing and registration statutes for private institutions in response to litigation.

Authorities referenced in hearing: Oliver and staff referenced multiple Minnesota statutory chapters related to financial aid and postsecondary reporting (specific lines and statute numbers were discussed during the hearing).

Ending: The committee adopted the A3 package, including an oral change on resident tuition language, laid Senate File 3943 over for further consideration, and adjourned the hearing.