# Presentation: 241830

## <date/time>

## Sessions S113 and S113R

***Community Service in the FWS Program***
***Harold F. McCullough, FSA***
***Daniel L. Pollard, OPE***

## Introduction

- Federal Work-Study (FWS) Program
- Community Service Requirements
- Job Location and Development (JLD) Program
- American Tradition of Private Community Service
- Questions and Answers

## FWS Program Purpose

- “[T]o stimulate and promote the part-time employment of students who are enrolled as undergraduate, graduate, or professional students and who are in need of earnings from employment to pursue courses of study at eligible institutions, and to encourage students receiving Federal student financial assistance to participate in community service activities that will benefit the Nation and engender in the students a sense of social responsibility and commitment to the community.”

## FWS Program

- FWS Program is one of the Federal campus-based programs
- Participating institutions are provided with funding that they are responsible for administering on their own campuses
- Allows FAAs considerable flexibility in the packaging of financial aid awards to best meet the needs of their students
- 4.1% of all undergraduates receive
- 8.8% of full-time, full year UGs receive

## Overview

- Funds allocated to institutions based on statutory formula
- Administrative cost allowance
- Over 3000 institutions participated in FWS in AY 2000-2001
- Average amount earned by a student was $1318 in AY 2000-2001
- FAAs determine individual award amounts for students

## Cost Sharing

- FWS includes federal share and institutional share (unless waived)
- Federal share:  In general, up to 75% of the wages paid to a needy undergraduate or graduate student working part-time to pay his or her college costs
- The school or other eligible employer provides the remaining share of at least 25% of the student’s wages
- Private, for-profit employer must pay at least 50% of the student’s wages

## Conditions Allowing up to 90% Federal Share

- FWS regulations (34 CFR 675.26(a)(2)) allow a school to pay a student a federal share of FWS wages in excess of the current 75% limit but not exceeding 90% under the following conditions:
- student is employed at:
- a private, nonprofit organization, or
- a federal, state, or local public agency
- employment at school itself is not eligible
- school does not own, operate, or control the agency
- to satisfy requirement, school must keep statement on file (signed by both school and agency) that they have no such relationship

## Conditions Allowing up to 90% Federal Share  (cont’d)

- school selects the agency on an individual, case-by-case basis
- satisfied when school selects the agency through its normal process of selecting potential employers
- agency must be unable to afford the costs of the regular nonfederal share
- to satisfy requirement, school must keep on file a signed letter from an official of the agency stating that the agency cannot afford to pay the regular nonfederal share

## Conditions Allowing up to 90% Federal Share  (cont’d)

- 90% federal share is limited to no more than 10% of school’s students paid under FWS
- for this calculation, school must use total number of FWS students paid during the current award year
- 10% limit does not include students whose FWS wages have been exempted from the full nonfederal share requirement due to being employed as a reading tutor, mathematics tutor, or performing family literacy activities

## Conditions Allowing up to 100% Federal Share

- FWS regulations (34 CFR 675.26(d)) allow a school to pay a student a federal share of 100 percent under the following conditions*:
- student is employed by:
- the school,
- a private, nonprofit organization, or
- a federal, state, or local public agency; and
- student is:
- employed as a reading tutor for children,
- performing family literacy activities in a family literacy project, or
- employed as a mathematics tutor for children
- *There are other conditions that also qualify for a federal share of 100 percent.

## FWS Community Service Expenditure Requirements

- School must use at least 7% of total FWS allocation (initial and supplemental) to pay students employed in community service
- At least one of the FWS students employed in community service must work:
- as a reading tutor for children in a reading tutoring project; or
- performing family literacy activities in a family literacy project

## FWS Community Service Waivers

- The Secretary may waive one or both of the community service requirements
- school in a waiver request must demonstrate that enforcing the requirements would cause hardship for the students
- fact that it may be difficult for the school to comply is not in and of itself a basis for granting a waiver
- waiver request must be submitted by August 9, 2002

## Definition of “Community Services”

- _Community Services_ - services identified by a school (through formal or informal consultation with local nonprofit, governmental, and community-based organizations) as designed to improve the quality of life for community residents, particularly low-income individuals, or to solve particular problems related to their needs

## “Community Services”

- FSA Handbook provides examples of Community Services.  The services include such fields as:
- health care, child care, literacy training, education (including tutorial services), welfare, social services, transportation, public safety, recreation, and crime prevention

## “Community Services”  (cont’d)

- Community Services must be open and accessible to the community
- college not considered a community for this purpose
- a service is considered open to community if the service is publicized to the community and general public (not just faculty, staff, students, and their families) uses service
- only statutory exception to this requirement is for support services for students with disabilities, even if services provided only to students enrolled at the school

## “Community Services”  (cont’d)

- To be considered employed in a community service job, an FWS student does not have to provide a “direct” service
- To determine whether student’s employment provides community service, school must consider whether service provided primarily benefits community versus the agency or school

## “Community Services”  (cont’d)

- If FWS student was hired to care for the grounds of the administrative offices of a private non-profit agency that provides community services, the job itself would not be community service
- Alternatively, FWS student preparing meals for “meals on wheels” program wouldn’t have direct contact with community residents but is still providing important community service

## FWS Community Service -- AY 1999-2000

- Out of 733K FWS recipients, 101K were employed in CS activities -- about 13%
- Of the total FWS earned compensation paid to students ($917m), about 14% ($130m) was paid to students in CS activities

## Summary of FWS in Community Service Activities

## Institution Establishes FWS Community Jobs

- Identify potential jobs and employers
- Research your students’ interests in community service
- Promote community service jobs
- In contacting potential community service agencies, place a priority on jobs that will meet the human, educational, environmental, and public safety needs of low-income individuals.

## Job Location and Development (JLD) Program

- JLD Program locates and develops off-campus jobs for currently-enrolled students regardless of financial need (FWS and non-FWS students)
- encourages students to participate in community service
- Use of FWS Federal funds for JLD
- a school may use up to the lesser of the two amounts:
- 10% of its FWS allocation and reallocation; or
- $50,000
- JLD covers up to 80% of allowable costs
- School is expected to generate student wages exceeding Federal funds spent under JLD

## Applying for Funds on FISAP

- A school will never receive more FWS funds than it requests on the FISAP, regardless of the results of the statutory formula
- approximately 1/3 of schools cap themselves for FWS
- A school should request funds for a program on the FISAP on the basis of what it can use
- However, a school should not request more funds than it can expect to use

## Reallocation of FWS Funds

- Returned FWS funds will be reallocated to schools that used at least 5% of their total FWS allocation for students employed as reading tutors of children or in family literacy activities as part of their community service activities
- To request supplemental 2002-2003 FWS funds, a school must:
- complete the Campus-Based Reallocation Form that is found on the FISAP on the Web site
- submit the form by midnight Eastern time, August 23, 2002
- All supplemental FWS funds must only be used to pay students in community service jobs

## Future of FWS Community Service

- Early stages of possible change
- Both a White House policy book and a bill in Congress propose to increase the percentage of CS in the FWS Program over several years

## American Tradition of Private Community Service

- Alexis de Tocqueville, *Democracy in America* (1835)
- de Tocqueville, a wealthy Frenchman of the early 1800s, traveled throughout America and wrote enthusiastically on his observations of the American spirit of voluntary effort for the common good.
- “Americans of all ages, all stations of life, and all types of disposition are forever forming associations . . . .  In democratic countries knowledge of how to combine is the mother of all other forms of knowledge; on its progress depends that of all the others."

## American Tradition of Private Community Service  (cont’d)

- “The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.“
- de Tocqueville compares how Europe and America solve problems.  He suggests that giving, volunteering and joining are mutually reinforcing and habit forming -- what he calls “habits of the heart.”  He points out the great difference between how a problem like road repair or a community center or a public park is handled in the USA versus Europe.

## Community Service in America Today

- The role of government has greatly expanded since that time, yet, in general, the basic focus on private involvement remains
- At the same time, many observers perceive a decline in volunteerism and service activity
- The Administration and many in Congress are advocating a renewed call to community service

## Undergraduate Community Service in General

- Many students participate in CS activities outside the FWS program
- Percentage distribution of undergraduates, by community service activities and for those who volunteered, the average and median hours worked per month:  1999-2000 (National Center for Education Statistics)
- About 35% of UGs reported participating in some sort of community service activity, including 25% who reported one activity and 9% who reported two or more
- Average hours per month:  19
- Median hours per month:  11
- But varies widely by demographic categories

## Other Subsidies for Community Service

- Loan Cancellation/Forgiveness/Repayment
- DHHS, DoED, other Federal agencies, many States
- Health Professions
- Teaching
- Other
- AmeriCorps (including AmeriCorps*VISTA)
- Learn and Serve
- Senior Corps

## Q&As

- Questions and Answers