Description: Tags: 0607Vol6Ch2OperatingFWS
Description: Tags: 0607Vol6Ch2OperatingFWS
2
Work-Study Program
This chapter covers issues specific to operating Federal Work-Study, Job Location
and Development, and Work-College programs. For student eligibility criteria
relating to campus-based programs, including FWS, refer to Volume 1. For in-
formation on selecting campus-based recipients, and calculating and packag-
ing campus-based awards, see Volume 3. For information on disbursing cam-
pus-based aid, see Volume 4.
A school must make FWS jobs reasonably available to all eligible 7% cite
students at the school. To the maximum extent practicable, a school 34 CFR 675.18(g)
must provide FWS jobs that complement and reinforce each
recipient’s educational program or career goals.
Also, as noted earlier, the pay must meet the requirements of the
state or local law. This means that when the state or local law requires a
higher minimum wage, the school must pay the FWS student that
higher wage. However, if the state or local law allows a wage that is less
than the Federal minimum wage, the FWS student must be paid at
least the Federal minimum wage.
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A student who was not attending school in the summer but who
was eligible for summer FWS employment because he anticipated
being enrolled in the fall may fail to then attend school. When a
student fails to attend for the next period of enrollment, the school
that employed him must be able to demonstrate that he was eligible
for employment and that the school had reason to believe the student
intended to study at that school in the next period of enrollment. At a
minimum, the school that employed the student must keep a written
record in its files showing that he had accepted the school’s offer of
admittance for the next period of enrollment.
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FWS Mini-sessions
If a school combines a series of mini-sessions or modules into one
term (e.g., three summer mini-sessions into one summer term), an
FWS student attending any of the mini-sessions may earn FWS wages at
any time throughout that term. The school may apply those earnings
toward the student’s financial need for the mini-session(s) attended or
the next period of enrollment. The school must base the student’s
financial need for attending the summer term on the period of time
for which the student is actually enrolled in the mini-sessions.
The amount of FWS wages a student may earn at any point in the
term does not depend on whether the student is then enrolled in a
mini-session. The school or student may choose how to distribute the
hours worked throughout the summer term.
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Identify jobs
• Brainstorm types of jobs that would meet the community
service requirement. What jobs do your students currently
hold, on campus or off campus, that meet the community
service definition?
• Communicate the community service requirements to your
school’s student employment office.
Identify employers
• Which local community service organizations might be
interested in employing your FWS students?
• Contact local nonprofit, government, and community-based
organizations to assess their needs and determine what
interest exists for employing FWS students.
Talk to colleagues
• Talk to colleagues at other schools to get ideas on
implementing, locating, and developing the community
service jobs.
Step #2: Research Your Students’ Interest in
Community Service
• Research your FWS students’ degrees or certificate
programs, interests, and skills to determine which recipients
might find community service jobs appealing.
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Chapter 2 — Operating a Federal Work Study Program
What is a Family Literacy Project? How are Family Family literacy project definition
Literacy activities defined? Dear Colleague Letter CB-98-6, dated
May 1998
Research shows that children whose parents work with them on
literacy skills during early childhood have a better chance of reading
well and independently. The family literacy concept recognizes the
family as an institution for education and learning and the role of
parents as their children’s first teachers.
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student is doing work the school would normally support under its
own employment program. Having a student serve as a research
assistant to a professor is appropriate, as long as the work is in line with
the professor’s official duties and is considered work for the school
itself.
STUDENT SERVICES
Student services are services that are offered to students. Students
are persons enrolled or accepted for enrollment at the school. An FWS
Student services definition cite student who provides services only to the school’s former students is
34 CFR 675.2(b) not providing student services because the services are not offered to
currently enrolled students. However, an FWS student who provides
services to both current students and former students is providing
student services, because the services are offered to currently enrolled
students. For example, an FWS student provides job placement
assistance to current students and alumni of the school. The FWS
student is considered to be providing student services because his or
her services are offered to current students, as well as alumni.
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OFF-CAMPUS AGREEMENTS
Off-campus agreements
If your school would like an off-campus organization to employ 34 CFR 675.20(b)
FWS students, your school must enter into a written agreement—a
contract—with the off-campus organization. A written agreement is
required with the off-campus organization even if your school is
considered the employer of the FWS student. The school must make
sure the off-campus organization is a reliable agency with professional
direction and staff and that the work to be performed is consistent
with the purpose of the FWS Program. (See Appendix A at the end of
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this chapter for a model off-campus agreement. The sample need not
be followed exactly but serves as a guide.)
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Chapter 2 — Operating a Federal Work Study Program
assignment. The school may also use the evaluation to help off-campus
agencies improve their work programs.
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The Department does not define “tutor” for the FWS Program. This gives
schools flexibility in determining the job description and duties of a tutor. For
example, a reading tutor could be an FWS student who reads to a group of
preschoolers in a public library.
An FWS student employed as a tutor does not have to meet certain statutory
(for reading tutors) or regulatory (for reading and mathematics tutors)
educational standards or qualifications for the school to receive an
institutional-share waiver. However, an FWS reading or math tutor must have
adequate reading or math skills, as appropriate, and the Department strongly
recommends that the tutors be well trained before they tutor.
A preschool age child is a child from infancy to the age at which his or her
state provides elementary education.
The definition of an elementary school varies from state to state. Because the
Department does not wish to interfere with a state’s determination of what
constitutes children who are in elementary school, we will not provide
guidance on the maximum grade level for elementary school for purposes of
the institutional-share waiver for tutoring.
• The FWS tutor may not use religious material to tutor the child.
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Under limited circumstances, an FWS tutor can receive FWS wages while
he or she is being trained, and these wages can qualify for a waiver of the
institutional share. This training period must be only for a reasonable and
limited length of time. The Department would not consider a training
period of an academic term to be reasonable. The Department would
consider a reasonable training period to be one that occurs before the
student begins tutoring and that does not exceed approximately 20
hours. A school may not pay an FWS student to take an academic course
the school developed to provide classroom training on tutoring children.
An FWS student may take such a course as long as he or she is not paid
for taking the course (34 CFR 675.18(h)). See Chapter 4 for more
information.
The preparation time and evaluation time worked by an FWS tutor qualify
for a 100% federal share as long as the time spent for this purpose is
reasonable. For example, the Department would consider attending
evaluation and preparation meetings once a week for approximately one
hour to be reasonable. The Department wants to give some flexibility
because of the value of evaluation and preparation time. However, the
goal is to spend funds for FWS students to interact with the children and
in family literacy programs, not for other activities.
An FWS tutor job might qualify for a waiver of the institutional share
(100% federal share) but not qualify as part of the 7% community service
requirement. If, for example, a postsecondary school employs FWS
students to tutor young children in its daycare center and the center is
not open and accessible to the community, the job would qualify for the
waiver, but would not qualify as part of the 7% community service
requirement.
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Remember that it is the FWS reading or mathematics tutor job, not the
student working in the job, that qualifies for the institutional-share waiver.
Thus, an FWS student who is working another FWS job in addition to the
tutor job can be paid with 100% federal funds only for the time he or she is
working as a tutor, not for time spent on the other job. If, for example, an
FWS student spends only half of his or her time working as a reading tutor
(including preparation and evaluation time) and the other half on non-
tutoring tasks, the student may be paid 100% federal funds only for half the
time and the other half must be paid with a maximum of 75% federal funds
and a minimum of 25% nonfederal funds.
Your school may construct its own reading tutor program or join existing
community programs.
You may use the Job Location and Development (JLD) Program to locate or
develop jobs for FWS students as tutors of children. However, you may not
use JLD funds exclusively for this purpose because you would be in violation
of the JLD statutory requirement to expand off-campus jobs for currently
enrolled students who want jobs regardless of their financial need.
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Under the JLD Program, your school must locate and develop off-
campus jobs that are suitable to the scheduling and other needs of the
employed student and must, to the maximum extent practicable,
complement and reinforce the educational program or vocational goal
of the student.
JLD jobs may be part time or full time, for either a for-profit or
nonprofit employer.
Student Eligibility
Any student employed in a job developed under the JLD Program
must be currently enrolled at the school placing him or her in a job. A
school may place in JLD jobs both students who do not meet FWS
student eligibility criteria and those who do meet those criteria.
However, using JLD funds to find jobs only for FWS students would not
satisfy the program purpose of expanding off-campus jobs for students
who want jobs regardless of financial need.
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You must maintain records that indicate the amount and sources
of your school’s matching share. Procedures and records
requirements for JLD are the same as those for all campus-based
programs.
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Your school may not include student staff jobs in the JLD Office
on the FISAP in the JLD section for reporting the count of students
and the earnings of students for whom jobs were located or
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For example, each school must show that its own students have
earned wages that exceed the amount of federal funds the school
contributed to locate and develop those jobs. This fiscal information
must be reported on each school’s FISAP.
WORK-COLLEGES PROGRAM
Application to participate in the The Higher Education Amendments of 1992 authorized the Work-
Work-Colleges Program Colleges Program. Schools that satisfy the definition of “work-college”
DCL CB-05-02, February 2005
may apply to the U.S. Department of Education to participate in the
program. A work-college may transfer funds from its allocation for the
FWS Program and/or Federal Perkins Loan Program to fund the
Purpose of Work-Colleges school’s Work-Colleges Program.
Program cite
34 CFR 675.43
The Work-Colleges Program recognizes, encourages, and promotes
the use of comprehensive work-learning programs as a valuable
educational approach when used as an integral part of the school’s
Definition of Work-College cite educational program and as a part of a financial plan that decreases
34 CFR 675.41 reliance on grants and loans. The program also encourages students to
participate in community service activities.
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Volume 6 Appendices
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Chapter 2 — Operating a Federal Work Study Program
Model Off-Campus
Agreement
APPENDIX
a
The paragraphs below are suggested as models for the development of a written agreement
between a school and a Federal, State, or local public agency or a private nonprofit organization
that employs students who are attending that school and who are participating in the Federal
Work-Study (FWS) Program. Institutions and agencies or organizations may devise additional
or substitute paragraphs as long as they are not inconsistent with the statute or regulations.
This agreement is entered into between ____________, hereinafter known as the “Institution,” and
_______________, hereinafter known as the “Organization,” a (Federal, State, or local public agency),
(private nonprofit organization), (strike one), for the purpose of providing work to students eligible for the
Federal Work-Study Program [FWS].
Schedules to be attached to this agreement from time to time must be signed by an authorized
official of the institution and the organization and must set forth—
Students will be made available to the organization by the institution to perform specific work
assignments. Students may be removed from work on a particular assignment or from the organization by
the institution, either on its own initiative or at the request of the organization. The organization agrees that
no student will be denied work or subjected to different treatment under this agreement on the grounds of
race, color, national origin, or sex. It further agrees that it will comply with the provisions of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964 (Pub. L. 88-352; 78 Stat. 252) and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Pub. L. 92-
318) and the Regulations of the Department of Education which implement those Acts. Two examples of
Off-Campus Agreements are included to provide additional guidance.
(Where appropriate any of the following three paragraphs or other provisions may be included.)
1 Transportation for students to and from their work assignments will be provided by the
organization at its own expense and in a manner acceptable to the institution.
2 Transportation for students to and from their work assignments will be provided by the
institution at its own expense.
3 Transportation for students to and from their work assignments will not be provided by either
the institution or the organization.
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(Whether the institution or the organization will be considered the employer of the students
covered under the agreement depends upon the specific arrangement as to the type of supervision
exercised by the organization. It is advisable to include some provision to indicate the intent of the parties as
to who is considered the employer. As appropriate, one of the following two paragraphs may be included.1)
1 The institution is considered the employer for purposes of this agreement. It has the ultimate
right to control and direct the services of the students for the organization. It also has the
responsibility to determine whether the students meet the eligibility requirements for
employment under the Federal Work-Study Program, to assign students to work for the
organization, and to determine that the students do perform their work in fact. The
organization’s right is limited to direction of the details and means by which the result is to be
accomplished.
2 The organization is considered the employer for purposes of this agreement. It has the right to
control and direct the services of the students, not only as to the result to be accomplished, but
also as to the means by which the result is to be accomplished. The institution is limited to
determining whether the students meet the eligibility requirements for employment under the
Federal Work-Study Program, to assigning students to work for the organization, and to
determining that the students do perform their work in fact.
(Wording of the following nature may be included, as appropriate, to locate responsibility for payroll
disbursements and payment of employers’ payroll contributions.)
Compensation of students for work performed on a project under this agreement will be
disbursed—and all payments due as an employer’s contribution under State or local workers’ compensation
laws, under Federal or State social security laws, or under other applicable laws, will be made—by the
(organization) (institution) (strike one).
1 At times agreed upon in writing, the organization will pay to the institution an amount
calculated to cover the organization’s share of the compensation of students employed under
this agreement.
2 In addition to the payment specified in paragraph (1) above, at times agreed upon in writing,
the organization will pay, by way of reimbursement to the institution, or in advance, an amount
equal to any and all payments required to be made by the institution under State or local
workers’ compensation laws, or under Federal or State social security laws, or under any other
applicable laws, on account of students participating in projects under this agreement.
3 At times agreed upon in writing, the institution will pay to the organization an amount
calculated to cover the Federal share of the compensation of students employed under this
agreement and paid by the organization. Under this arrangement the organization will furnish
to the institution for each payroll period the following records for review and retention:
a Time reports indicating the total hours worked each week in clock time sequence and
containing the supervisor’s certification as to the accuracy of the hours reported;
1. Although the following paragraphs attempt to fix the identity of the employer, they will not necessarily be determinative if the actual facts indicate otherwise. Additional
wording that specifies the employer’s responsibility in case of injury on the job may also be advisable, since federal funds are not available to pay for hospital expenses or
claims in case of injury on the job. In this connection it may be of interest that one or more insurance firms in at least one state have in the past been willing to write a
workers’ compensation insurance policy which covers a student’s injury on the job, regardless of whether it is the institution or the organization that is ultimately deter-
mined to have been the student’s employer when he or she was injured.
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b A payroll form identifying the period of work, the name of each student, each student’s
hourly wage rate, the number of hours each student worked, each student’s gross pay, all
deductions and net earnings, and the total Federal share applicable to each payroll;2 and
c Documentary evidence that students received payment for their work, such as photographic
copies of canceled checks.
2. These forms, when accepted, must be countersigned by the institution as to hours worked as well as to the accuracy of the total Federal share which is to be reimbursed to
the organization or agency.
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Agency Name:_________________________
Date:_________________________________
Contact Name:_________________________________
Phone:_______________________________
Address:______________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_____Federal
_____State
_____County/City
_____United Way
_____Other (explain)
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_____Student employees
_____Volunteers
Job Title
Total Hours/Week
Description of Duties
_____YES _____NO
If YES:
9. Additional Comments:
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