Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund Reporting
Emergency Financial Aid Grants to Students

 

*Reviewed and updated on 10/8/20, with no changes to the previously published disclosure statement. The HEERF Student Aid portion has been fully spent.

 

The CARES Act Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund-IHE/Student Aid provides funding to institutions to provide emergency financial aid grants to students whose lives have been disrupted, many of whom are facing financial challenges and struggling to make ends meet. In that regards, institutions have the responsibility of determining how grants will be distributed to students, how the amount of each student grant is calculated, and the development of any instructions or directions that are provided to students about the grant.

Therefore, as required, The Praxis Institute (TPI) makes the following information available to the public:

  1. On May 29th/2020, The Praxis Institute (TPI) signed and returned to the Department the Certification and Agreement and the assurance that the institution intends to use, no less than 50 percent of the funds received under Section 18004(a)(1) of the CARES Act to provide Emergency Financial Aid Grants to students.
  2. The total amount of funds that TPI has received from the Department pursuant to TPI’s Certification and Agreement [for] Emergency Financial Aid Grants to Students is $663,998.00
  3. The total amount of Emergency Financial Aid Grants distributed to TPI’s students under Section 18004(a)(1) of the CARES Act, as of the date of this notification, is $331,999.00.
  4. The estimated total number of students at TPI eligible to participate in programs under Section 484 in Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 and thus eligible to receive Emergency Financial Aid Grants to students under Section 18004(a)(1) of the CARES Act is 342.
  5. The total number of TPI’s students who have received an Emergency Financial Aid Grant to students under Section 18004(a)(1) of the CARES Act is 342.
  6. The method used by TPI to determine which students receive Emergency Financial Aid Grants and how much they would receive under Section 18004(a)(1) of the CARES Act was:
    1. Eligibility
      1. To determine eligibility, while following the CARES Act stipulations, TPI established that only students who are or could be eligible to participate in programs under Section 484 in Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, may qualify to receive emergency financial aid grants. Additionally, students had to have been actively enrolled at TPI prior to April 1st/2020.
    2. Disbursed amount
      1. TPI disbursed the full amount, of the allocated funds, evenly among all eligible students.
  7. Any instructions, directions, or guidance provided by TPI to students concerning the Emergency Financial Aid Grants.
    1. The disbursement check was accompanied with a letter from the institution’s executive director to the recipient students explaining the following points:
      1. The funds provided by the CARES Act are grants, so they do not need to be repaid.
      2. The funds provided by the CARES Act are not includible in student’s gross income.
      3. Emergency financial aid grants to students can be used for expenses related to the disruption of campus operations due to Coronavirus (including eligible expenses under a student’s cost of attendance, such as food, housing, course materials, technology, health care, and child care).
      4. The funds provided by the CARES Act grant cannot be applied to student’s current school billed charges or book purchases.