Federal Work-Study is full of complicated regulations and program interpretations, especially for those people who don’t work with it on a regular basis. Following is some additional information that will help increase your understanding.

How Does the Money Work?

There are several potentially confusing issues to understand regarding how FWS funds flow.

From the Department of Education to Your Institution

Your institution applies each year to receive FWS funds using the “FISAP” (Fiscal Operations Report and Application to Participate). Most of the FWS funds the institution receives will go to student wages, while a small amount is provided for administrative costs (this is called the Administrative Cost Allowance). A calculation called “fairshare” determines which institutions in the nation receive more or less of the total amount available for FWS. In general, institutions that have participated in the FWS program for a longer amount of time receive more of the funds. Your Financial Aid office can tell you more about how the fairshare calculation affects your institution.

From the Institution to the Students

Of the wages paid to a FWS student in a traditional on-campus position, 75% come from the federal government (through the FWS program) and 25% come from the institution’s budget. Often, when a student serves in the community, the community site is asked to pay the 25% that would otherwise be paid by the institution. However, the institution may ask the community site to pay more or less than 25%. (See the following sections on wages and waivers.)

Students are given a FWS contract as part of their financial aid package. The contract lists the total maximum amount they can earn through FWS for the year. Students need to pay attention to their contract maximum, the amount they are earning per hour, and the number of hours they are working so that they use up their contract at the rate they and their supervisor intend. Some students have the FWS wages applied directly to the cost of their education, while others choose to receive a check. In a small number of cases, the community organization is responsible for putting students on their payroll and paying them directly. (In these cases, the organization bills the college or university for the federal portion of the wage.) More often, the institution pays the students and bills the community organization for any portion of the wages it owes.

Wages

The wage that FWS students earn is determined by your institution, not by the federal government. It must be at least the federal minimum wage. Wages should be commensurate with students’ responsibility as outlined in their position description. At some institutions, all FWS students earn the same wage. At others, the wage varies depending on what the students are doing.

Many institutions have established a wage incentive for students doing community service FWS, such as offering a higher starting wage for community positions or offering a higher possible wage if students stay in their position. In some cases, community organizations will offer a wage supplement (over and above the amount they are required to contribute) to attract students with a higher total wage.

Waivers

There are a number “waivers,” or exceptions to wage or other rules, that you might hear about in connection with community service FWS.

America Reads. The most common waiver is the America Reads waiver. Under this regulation, if the student is a tutor in a community literacy or math program, the institution may pay the student using 100% federal funds rather than 75%.

Minority-serving institutions. Some minority-serving institutions (e.g., Historically Black Colleges and Universities) may use 100% federal funds to pay all FWS students.

Under-resourced organizations. A lesser known waiver allows community organizations that cannot afford to pay 25% of the students’ wage to request that they only pay 10%, with the other 90% coming from federal sources. The federal share may be up to 90% if the student is employed at a nonprofit organization or public agency that “would not otherwise be able to afford the costs of this employment.” The organization must write a letter to the institution requesting this waiver; the institution reviews these requests on a case-by-case basis. No more than 10% of students participating in FWS may work under this sort of waiver.

Institutional waiver. In a very small number of cases, institutions will request a waiver of exemption from the 7% mandate. They do not need to report any community service FWS positions at all. This is a difficult waiver to get, and few institutions have one.

Complicating Factors

Managing FWS funds can be very complicated, even for experienced Financial Aid administrators. It is helpful to understand some of the reasons that it might be difficult for your Financial Aid office to determine exactly how much funding will be available during any given year or term for community service FWS positions:

• Not all students offered FWS in their financial aid package enroll in the institution.
• Not all students who accepts a FWS offer find employment.
• Not all students who work use up all of their award.
• Some students work more than their award allows.
• Students earn at different rates (of time and money).

Who Decides What?

There are some clear areas where the federal government determines regulations for FWS programs, and there are instances where the federal government is flexible and institutions create their own policies. You could work to convince your institution to change its approach to the areas listed on the right side of the table below; however, it is worth having a conversation to determine how set some of the institutional policies are, why they exist as they do, and where changes are possible.

Decision-Making for Community Service FWS

FWS Program Element	Federal Regulations	Institutional Policy
Wage for students	At least minimum wage.	The institution determines the range of wages.
Match required of community sites	No maximum or minimum. Organizations can request to pay only 10% due to financial hardship. Federal funds can be used to pay 100% of literacy/math tutoring wages.	Institution determines community site share of student wages (0-50%).
Eligibility for FWS	Students meet basic income limits on the FAFSA.	Institution determines how many and which students will receive FWS as part of their financial aid package.
How much FWS funding is dedicated to community service positions	At least 7%.	Institution determines if it will allocate more than 7%.
Whether work on campus can be counted as meeting the 7% community service mandate	Community services are defined as “designed to improve the quality of life for community residents, particularly low-income individuals.”	Institutions may believe that services provided on campus (e.g. staffing the campus library) meet the definition, but this does not generally fit the “spirit” of the regulation.
Whether students can work for religious organizations	Students may tutor in a parochial school buy may not engage in religious education activities.	The institution may establish its own priorities for where students can serve that may or may not allow for serving with religious organizations.
Whether students can work for political organizations	With a very small number of exceptions, students working for partisan or nonpartisan political oragnizations do not qualify as meeting the 7% community service FWS mandate.
Whether students can replace regular workers	Students may not displace workers or replace striking workers.

Do Students Get Paid for Training and Transportation?

Students in some community service FWS positions may require significant training in order to be adequately prepared for their community experience. This is especially true when working with vulnerable populations and/or in literacy programs. Students may be paid wages for the time they spend in training. They may also be paid wages for the time they spend getting to and from their community site, although the federal governmental does not provide any extra funds for mileage reimbursement or public transportation costs.

675.18 Use of funds.

(h) Payment for time spent in training and travel. (1) For any award year, an institution may pay students for reasonable amount of time spent for training that is directly related to FWS employment.

(2) Beginning with the 1999-2000 award year, an institution may pay students for a reasonable amount of time spent for travel that is directly related to employment in community service activities (including tutoring in reading and family literacy activities).

FWS and Academic Credit

Students may earn FWS wages for the same hours they spend completing an internship, a practicum, a research project (in some cases), or an assistantship. Students may not earn work-study wages for the time they would normally spend in a classroom or lab as part of a course. If students are engaged in service-learning activities outside of the classroom, it is possible for them to earn FWS wages. You should discuss these options with your institution’s Financial Aid professionals.

675.20 Eligible employers and general conditions and limitation on employment.

…(d) Academic credit and work-study. (1) A student may be employed under the FWS program and also receive academic credit for the work performed. Those jobs include, but are not limited to, work performed when the student is –

(i) Enrolled in an internship;
(ii) Enrolled in a practicum; or
(iii) Employed in a research, teaching, or other assistantship.

(2) A student employed in an FWS job and receiving academic credit for that job may not be –

(i) Paid less than he or she would be if no academic credit were received;
(ii) Paid for receiving instruction in a classroom, laboratory, or other academic setting.

Work for Religious or Political Organizations

Generally, students can work in programs sponsored by a religious organization as long as the activities serve the community at large, do not involve religious education, and are open to individuals outside the religious organization’s own members. Generally, students may not serve partisan or nonpartisan political organizations or campaigns. Institutions may have differing interpretations of these regulations, so it is best to have a conversation with your Financial Aid professionals to determine if your institution has determined its own criteria.

675.22 Employment provided by a Federal, State, or local public agency, or a private nonprofit organization.

(a) If a student is employed by a Federal, State, or local public agency, or a private nonprofit organization, the work that the student performs must be in the public interest.

(b) FWS employment in the public interest. The Secretary considers work in the public interest to be work performed for the national or community welfare rather than work performed to the benefit of particular interest or group. Work is not in the public interest if –

(1) It primarily benefits the members of a limited membership organization such as a credit union, a fraternal or religious order, or a cooperative;

(2) It is for an elected official who is not responsible for the regular administration of Federal, State, or local government;

(3) It is work as a political aide for any elected official;

(4) A student’s political support or party affiliation is taken into account in hiring him or her;

(5) It involves any partisan or nonpartisan political activity or is associated with a faction in an election for public or party office; or

(6) It involves lobbying on the Federal, State, or local level.

Other Issues

Required Written Agreement or Contract

You must have a written agreement with the off-campus agency or organization where students serve. The template for your agreement should be approved by your institution’s attorney, although you may use a similar agreement with all off-campus organizations. A sample agreement is found in the Federal Student Aid Handbook.

7% Is the Requirement — 15% is the Average

While the 7% mandate gets most of the attention, the national average for use of FWS funds for community service is actually 15% (in 2005). It is not clear, however, whether all of the wages included in this average were used in positions that meet the spirit of the mandate or what the quality of the programs are. However, when discussing your institution’s plan for community service FWS, make sure that your colleagues know that 15%, not 7%, is the national average.

Serving Students with Disabilities

A special regulation allows FWS students who serve other students on campus with disabilities to be counted as part of the 7% for community service, even though these students are serving other college students.