Lord Fairfax Community College | Current Students | Financial Aid | Refund and Repayment Policy | Repayment Policy

The Financial Aid Office at LFCC is required by federal and state regulations to have a written policy for the refund and repayment of federal and state aid received by students who withdraw, drop out, are dismissed, or take a leave of absence prior to completing 60 percent of a payment period or term for which payment has been received. These policies are effective only if the student completely terminates enrollment or stops attending all their classes before completing more than 60 percent of the enrollment period.  The Title IV financial aid and/or state award programs must be recalculated in these situations.

Repayment Policy

The amount of aid that a student must repay is determined via the Federal Formula for Return of Title IV funds as specified in Section 484B of the Higher Education Act. This law also specifies the order of return of the Title IV funds to the programs from which they were awarded.

A repayment may be required when a refund has been disbursed to a student from financial aid funds in excess of the amount of aid the student earned during the term. The amount of aid earned is determined by multiplying the total aid, other than Federal Work Study, for which the student qualified by the percentage of time during the term that the student was enrolled.

If a student leaves the institution prior to completing 60 percent of a payment period or term, the Financial Aid Office recalculates eligibility for Title IV and/or state funds. Recalculation is based on the percentage of earned aid using the following Federal Return of Title IV funds formula:

• Percentage of payment period or term completed = the number of days completed up to the withdrawal date divided by the total days in the payment period or term. (Any break of five days or more is not counted as part of the days in the term.) This percentage is also the percentage of earned aid.

Funds are returned to the appropriate federal and/or state program based on the percentage of unearned aid using the following formula:

• Aid to be returned = (100 percent of the aid that could be disbursed minus the percentage of earned aid) multiplied by the total amount of aid that could have been disbursed during the payment period or term.

• If a student earned less aid than was disbursed, the College would be required to return a portion of the funds and the student would be required to return a portion of the funds. Keep in mind that when Title IV and/or state funds are returned, the student may owe a debt to the College.

• If a student earned more aid than was disbursed to him/her, the College would owe the student a post-withdrawal disbursement which must be paid within 120 days of the student's withdrawal.

The College must return the amount of Title IV and/or state funds for which it is responsible no later than 30 days after the date of the determination of the date of the student's withdrawal.

The responsibility for returning unearned aid is allocated between the College and the student according to the portion of disbursed aid that could have been used to cover College charges and the portion that could have been disbursed directly to the student once the College charges were covered. LFCC will distribute the unearned aid back to the Title IV and/or state programs as specified by law. The student will be billed for the amount the student owes to the Title IV and/or state programs and any amount due to the College resulting from the return of Title IV and/or state funds used to cover College charges.

Refunds are allocated in the following order:

• Federal Pell Grants for which a return of funds is required
• Federal Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG) for which a return of funds is required
• Federal Supplemental Opportunity Grants (SEOG) for which a return of funds is required
• Other assistance under this Title for which a return of funds is required (e.g., LEAP)
• Commonwealth Grant (COMA) for which a return of funds is required
• Virginia Guaranteed Assistance Program (VGAP) for which a return of funds is required

You will be notified within 30 days of your overpayment and will be instructed to contact the LFCC Business Office to arrange a suitable repayment agreement.