Federal Updates
U.S. Department of Education
October 1, 2019 – The 2020-21 FAFSA cycle began on October 1, 2019 and is available until June 30, 2021. The final versions of the 2020-21 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®) form, FAFSA on the Web Worksheet, and Student Aid Eligibility Worksheet for Question 23 are now available.
October 2, 2019 – The Department published a notice in the Federal Register requesting student nominees for appointment to serve on the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI). Nominations must be received no later than Friday, October 25, 2019.
October 3, 2019 – Federal Student Aid released a series of updates to the quarterly application, disbursement, and portfolio reports on its FSA Data Center to include data through June 30, 2019.
Final versions of the English and Spanish versions of the 2020-21 Student Aid Report (SAR) and SAR Acknowledgment are now available in PDF.
December 2, 2019 – The Federal Student Aid’s New Financial Aid Administrators Pre-Conference Training will take place on December 2, 2019 at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center.
Looking Ahead – 2019 FSA Training Conference. The Federal Student Aid Office has opened registration for the 2019 FSA Training Conference scheduled for December 3 to 6 in Reno, Nevada. The FSA Training Conference is training provided for financial aid professionals by the government for those institutions receiving Title IV funds and is the largest training program in the United States serving the financial aid community. In 2018 more than 2,000 unique schools registered for the conference. Registration is free.
U.S. Congress – Newly Introduced Legislation of Note
H.R. 4615 – To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require an institution of higher education to submit a teach-out plan under certain circumstances, and for other purposes.
a. Status: Referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor, 10/04/19
b. Sponsor: Rep. Donna Shalala (D-FL) 5 Cosponsors
H.R. 4609 – To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to include a full-time job with a veterans or military service organization as a public service job eligible for public service loan forgiveness.
a. Status: Referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor, 10/04/19
b. Sponsor: Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA) 1 Cosponsor
H.R. 4608 – To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to create the Pell Plus program.
a. Status: Referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor, 10/04/19
b. Sponsor: Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-WA) 2 Cosponsors
H.R. 4607 – To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to include certain employment as a health care practitioner as eligible for public service loan forgiveness, and for other purposes.
a. Status: Referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor, 10/04/19
b. Sponsor: Rep. Josh Harder (D-CA) 4 Cosponsors
H.R. 4603 – To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide for Federal student loan reform.
a. Status: Referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor, 10/04/19
b. Sponsor: Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-CA) 1 Cosponsor
H.R. 4596 – To improve service to students and other participants in the Federal student financial assistance programs, to establish the Office of the Borrower Advocate to replace the Student Loan Ombudsman, and for other purposes.
a. Status: Referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor, 10/01/19
b. Sponsor: Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) 1 Cosponsor
H.R. 4590 – To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to terminate capitalization of interest after forbearance and certain deferment periods.
a. Status: Referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor, 10/01/19
b. Sponsor: Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL) 2 Cosponsors
H.R. 4587 – To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to require certain institutions of higher education to provide notice of tuition levels for students.
a. Status: Referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor, 10/01/19
b. Sponsor: Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-PA) 10 Cosponsors
H.R. 4584 – To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to repeal the suspension of eligibility for assistance under title IV due to drug-related offenses.
a. Status: Referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor, 10/01/19
b. Sponsor: Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) 35 Cosponsors
State Updates
News from California, Texas and Florida including a Must-Attend Texas Summit for Texas Cosmetology Schools
The first full week of October finds only six state legislatures actively meeting. AACS will however continue to keep updated on the latest state legislative and regulatory developments of interest to your school.
In California, Governor Gavin Newsom (D) signed AB 1340 and AB 5 into law last week. Both measures will become effective January 1, 2020.
AB 1340 was introduced in February as a state gainful employment bill. While the enacted measure does not include a debt-to-earning metric leading to potential enrollment limitations, it still requires cosmetology schools and other institutions regulated by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education (BPPE) to report individual identifying information, the program the graduate was enrolled in, and specified student loan debt information. The Act requires the bureau to match the data reported by institutions pursuant to this provision with wage data from the Employment Development Department, as specified. It also requires the bureau to post online “relevant program-level and institution-level statistics presented line in terms of easily understood labor market measures and consistent with all pertinent state and federal privacy laws, regarding the earnings levels of graduates and the student debt information reported.”
AB 5 impacts booth renters and other independent contractors in the Golden State. According to Fred Jones of the Professional Beauty Federation of California, “AB 5 essentially renders illegal most forms of independent contractor relationships with the exception of those few sectors that received an exemption in that legislation. Our industry did, in fact, earn a limited exception in that bill, but it is narrowly tailored. It won’t make all booth renters in this state happy and could prove to be a model for other states to follow.”
As enacted, the measure allows specified beauty industry professionals – cosmetologists, barbers, electrologists, estheticians, natural hair braiders, and manicurists (until January 1, 2022) – to be an independent contractor if the following criteria are met:
“(I) Sets their own rates for services performed, provided the rate is equal to or greater than two times the minimum wages for hours worked and is paid directly by their clients.
(II) Sets their own hours of work and has sole discretion to decide which clients from who they will provide services.
(III) Has their own book of business and schedules their own appointments.
(IV) Maintains their own business license for the services offered to clients.
(V) If the individual is performing services at the location of the hiring entity, then the individual issues a Form 1099 to the salon or business owner from which they rent their business space.
(VI) This subdivision shall become inoperative, with respect licensed manicurists, on January 1, 2022.”
On the regulatory front, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation will be holding a Cosmetology Program Summit in Austin on Monday, October 21 at 1:00 p.m. (CT). Schools in the Lone Star state will want to attend as curriculum options to implement HB 2847 – reducing the course of instruction for cosmetology licensure from 1,500 to 1,000 hours – will be discussed. A separate Barbering Program Summit will be held the same day beginning at 9 a.m. (CT). The Summits will be broadcast live on TDLR’s YouTube channel.
Please see the links below for additional information:
Meeting Notices
Barbering Program Summit Agenda
Cosmetology Program Summit Agenda
The text of the bills mentioned in this update can be found in AACS’ Bill Tracking Portal
Please do not hesitate to contact me at by email or by phone at 202-491-5254 with comments or questions.
Bill Introduction
Florida S474
Senator Ben Albritton (R), who represents the Florida Keys, introduced the “Occupational Freedom and Opportunity Act” Monday. The bill would reduce the course of instruction for barbering from 1,200 to 900 hours; allow for early licensure testing of barbers at 600 hours; provide for 1-to-1 licensure reciprocity of barbers; deregulate hair braiding, hair wrapping, body wrapping, the application of polish to fingernails and toenails, and makeup application; provide for 1-to1 licensure reciprocity for cosmetologists upon completion of a two-hour course on HIV/AIDS; and reduce the biennial CEU requirement for licensure renewal from 16 to 10 hours. The measure would also severely reduce the course of instruction required for specialist licensure: nail specialists from 240 to 150 hours; facial specialists from 260 to 165 hours, and; full specialists (combining both skin and nails) from 500 to 300 hours.