Coordinating board details rule changes: FAST funding model, Texas Grant allocations and carry-forward limits

Chris Willen, director in the funding and financial aid division, briefed the Financial Aid Advisory Committee on recent and proposed rulemaking.

He said the board adopted several April rule changes and will pause major rulemaking until after the next legislative session, with select items planned for the October board. The three headline items discussed were: a new funding model for FAST (moving from constant-cost reimbursement toward a formula projection with published projections and earlier payments), finalized Texas Grant rules (including statutory changes implemented via negotiated rulemaking and allocations), and changes to the College Access Loan eligibility and manageable-debt calculations.

On FAST, Willen said the board will publish projections (first projections to appear at the end of the month) and move to a formula-style system intended to deliver payments sooner and reduce administrative back-and-forth. He said this is possible because CBM reporting for FAST is now operational.

Regarding Texas Grant, the board completed negotiated rulemaking to implement legislative changes (including House Bill 3041) and new allocation priorities for top-25% and TEOG-pathway students. Willen acknowledged some institutions' data issues delayed the final allocation postings; staff are working through those cases with a target to publish final allocations by early next week.

On carry-forward policy the board proposed a limit (if adopted) that would allow institutions to carry forward only 10% of a program's first-year allocation into the second year of a biennium; any excess would revert to the agency for a supplemental allocation in year two. Willen said the rule would start in the next biennium (end of FY2028) and aims to get unused dollars to students sooner.

He also described a change to the College Access Loan process: manageable-debt calculations will apply to master's-degree applicants as well as undergraduates for loan applications received after Oct. 15 (the anticipated SLMS cutover date), with new manageable-debt thresholds published by degree level and zip-code bands.

Committee members asked operational questions about loan certification order and timing; staff deferred technical details to the SLMS presentation and to loan operations leads.

Willen closed by urging institutions to validate any allocation or data-team queries promptly, watch for proposed rules entering public comment in late July or August, and plan for the October rulemaking window.