Clearinghouse Member FAQs

This situation can occur for various reasons. Here are several questions you can answer that will allow you to identify and correct the problem.

• Was your enrollment data reported on schedule? Check our secure Web site to find out when you were scheduled to deliver your enrollment data to us, when your data was actually submitted, and when the Clearinghouse processed it. The Clearinghouse cannot notify your students' lenders until you submit data to us. If you are late in submitting your data to us, we cannot pass updated enrollment information onto your students' lenders and guarantors in a timely fashion, which may result in lenders prematurely contacting your student borrowers for repayment. You may wish to talk to your staff about the importance of adhering to your Clearinghouse schedule, as they may not be aware of the consequences when data arrives late.
  
  On our secure Web site, you can also find out when the Clearinghouse electronically notified an individual student's lenders and when we completed that student's deferment forms. If your school does not already have a password to our secure site, call us at 703-742-4200 or e-mailing service@studentclearinghouse.org.
• How far is your end-of-registration period from the beginning of the term? If your end-of-registration period occurs significantly after the beginning of the term, you may want to schedule an "early registration file". Submitting an early registration file enables the Clearinghouse to send out enrollment information almost as soon as the term begins rather than waiting several weeks.
• Is the student enrolled in a special program of study? If so, the student may be enrolled part-time at your school and part-time somewhere else, with neither school reporting the student as full-time and thus eligible for deferment.

Once your data is received, we check it thoroughly for accuracy. After it has passed our edits and we have resolved any discrepancies with you, it is merged into our database. Then we immediately compare your school's enrollment list to our student loan borrowers list, kept up-to-date in our database by our member guarantors and lenders. When the database finds or "matches" (students who appear on both your list and the lender/guarantor lists), the Clearinghouse electronically passes them onto to those students' lenders and guarantors.

In addition, the Department of Education, lenders, servicers, and guarantors use the Clearinghouse to check student enrollment status, either current or historical. For example, the NSLDS submits borrower files to the Clearinghouse as frequently as every 30 days. We update the borrowers' enrollment status and return the files to the NSLDS, ensuring your schools' compliance with federal regulations. Some lenders send deferment forms to students, which are then forwarded to us by our member schools to complete using the enrollment data they have provided to us. Many Clearinghouse guarantors, lenders and servicers query our database directly through our Web site to verify the dates when students graduated or withdrew.

The federal government requires schools to provide an anticipated graduation date (AGD) for each student. Lenders depend on AGDs to determine the start of their collection process if they have not been notified of the students' actual graduation or withdrawal from school. The AGD is also used to schedule the exit interview process for students. In addition, AGDs enable lenders to validate student deferments until the AGD (or until the student withdraws or graduates) and not just for the current term.

If a lender is a Clearinghouse member, we provide the requested information. The Clearinghouse has a contractual relationship with its members, ensuring that their requests are authorized and legitimate. Non-Clearinghouse lenders, however, must submit their enrollment verification to us through the school.

Students should only call the Clearinghouse if they have a problem that cannot be resolved in your office. Most student questions can be answered by accessing our secure Web site or contacting the student's servicer. (To obtain a password to our secure Web site, send an e-mail to service@studentclearinghouse.org. Please include your school address and phone and fax numbers.)

No. It is much more efficient — and the student will likely receive the deferment quicker — if deferment forms are regularly bundled together and sent to the Clearinghouse by the school rather than individually by students.

Please instruct your students to return their deferment forms to you. That way, you can be sure that only the appropriate forms are sent to the Clearinghouse.

Forward FFELP and Direct Loan program deferment forms to the Clearinghouse. Please make sure that your students fill out the deferment forms before you forward them to us, including the lender's name and address and the student's Social Security Number.

If you like, for a fee of $1.50 per certification, we can also process Perkins and private loan program deferment forms.

Participating lenders and servicers regularly receive an electronic exchange of enrollment data on their borrowers directly from Clearinghouse. Non-participating lenders and servicers receive enrollment data from their guarantors. All guarantors are currently members of the Clearinghouse.

Servicers that are not yet Clearinghouse members still request paper deferment forms. However, most of the largest servicers offer "paperless deferments" whereby students from a Clearinghouse school can request a deferment over the phone. These servicers rely on electronic enrollment status supplied by the Clearinghouse instead of using paper forms.

The Clearinghouse will continue to remain free to schools as long as participating lenders/servicers and guarantors continue to underwrite the costs. This means it's important for you to let your servicers and guarantors know that you think the Clearinghouse provides a valuable service and that you appreciate their role in making it possible.

1. Direct the auditor to the Clearinghouse's online Audit Resource Center for a copy our annual audit summary report. 

2. Provide the auditor with a print out of your NSLDS SSCR processing history from the Core tab of our school secure site, which shows when the SSCR was received and completed. 

3. If your auditor requests additional information, email the Audit Resource Team for assistance at auditresource@studentclearinghouse.org.

You can verify that your information has been processed by checking the secure portion of this web site. If you do not yet have a password, you can obtain one by calling 703-742-4200 or e-mailing service@studentclearinghouse.org.

Call our Customer Support staff at 703-742-4200, or e-mail your questions to service@studentclearinghouse.org.