The U.S. Department of Education (ED) issued DCL GEN-09-02, FP-09-02, CB-09-02 on February 27, 2009, which includes a corrected PDF version of the revised Discharge Application: Total and Permanent Disability that was attached to DCL GEN-09-01, FP-09-01, CB-09-01, posted on February 9, 2009. The PDF form posted on February 9, 2009 inadvertently omitted the last several words of the last sentence in Section 6 on page 4; the Microsoft Word version was correct.

The revised Discharge Application: Total and Permanent Disability incorporates the changes made to the Total and Permanent Discharge terms by the Title IV Final Rules, published November 1, 2007, and the TEACH Grant Program Final Rules, published June 23, 2008.

Also incorporated in this revised form is the new discharge for eligible veterans mandated by the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA). A separate Dear Colleague Letter will be issued to explain the new standards for veterans and to provide detailed operational guidance on documentation requirements and special procedures for processing these discharge requests.

At a later date, further changes to the application will be made to incorporate the HEOA provisions affecting total and permanent discharges that require implementing regulations.

Program participants may begin distributing the revised form immediately. Beginning July 1, 2009, only the revised form may be provided to borrowers. However, the previous version of the form (expiration date of May 31, 2008) may continue to be accepted after this date.

Please direct questions regarding this announcement to the Office of Regulatory Compliance at 1-518-473-3986; toll free at 1-866-431-HESC (1-866-431-4372), press 6; or by email at askpolicy@hesc.org.

Posted: 3/9/09