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| HEROES Act of 2003 |
Higher Education Relief Opportunities For Students (HEROES) Act of 2003 has the purpose to guaranree that service members who are getting Federal student aid are not adversely influenced because of their military status. HEROES Act of 2003 also intended to decrease the administrative burden placed on such people.
Affected individuals include the following, as well as their spouses and dependents:
• People who serve during war, military operation or national emergency.
• People who are the members of the National Guard having a qualifying duty (i.e., President or Secretary of Defense can call to active service by the for a period of more than 30 consecutive days) during a war, national emergency or military operation.
• People who live or are employed in an area which is called a disaster area by any Federal, State or local official in connection with a national emergency.
• People who suffer economic difficulty as a result of a war, military operation, or national emergency.
The waivers for affected individuals include:
• Need Analysis. Schools may present information about award year income. This will allow the financial aid administrator to find out changes in the financial circumstances of the affected individual and his/her family.
• Professional Judgment. Financial aid administrators help to select the method of determining financial need that is most useful to the affected individual and his/her family.
• Grant Overpayments. The "Return of Title IV Funds" requirement that grant overpayments be repaid is waived, when a student withdraws from college because of his/her status as an affected individual.
• Verification. There are several additional methods of satisfying the requirements to present a copy of US income tax returns, when an affected individual is chosen for verification.
• Oral Requests in Lieu of Written Requests. Such requests as for a leave of absence are required to be made in writing. They can be made orally by an affected individual. A member of the borrower's family or any other reliable source can made the requests.
• Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP). Affected individual may avoid SAP requirements.
• Exclusion of Interruptions. An affected person is excluded from the grace period and entitled to another full grace period upon completion of the excluded period of service. Moreover, an affected person can extend the in-school deferment status for up to three years.
• Collection of Defaulted Loans. The time period during which a borrower is an affected person collection activities on a defaulted education loan may be stopped.
• Parental Signatures. When the parents can not provide a signature because of their status as an affected people various requirements for a parental signature are waived.
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