Enrollment Reporting for Summer & Other Non-Required Terms

Updated: September 10, 2025

According to the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS), active students who have at least less than half-time status for the required term and are not withdrawn are considered continuously enrolled during non-required academic terms. For this reason, NSLDS has provided specific criteria for non-required term enrollment reporting.

The Clearinghouse recommends your institution have a policy for reporting non-required terms to us that addresses these key points. NSLDS requires schools to:

  • Report enrollment files for non-required academic terms (e.g., summer), like they do for regular terms occurring during the academic calendar.
  • Certify a campus-level withdrawn (W) status for any student who is not expected to return for the next required academic term and is therefore considered withdrawn (W) from the school.
  • Report the active enrollment status of any student who drops all courses for a non-required term (e.g., summer) but is expected to return for the next required term (e.g., fall).

Please be aware, when a federal aid student is reported to the Clearinghouse as withdrawn (W) at the campus level ─ regardless of whether the term is required or non-required ─ the Clearinghouse shares the status with loan servicers and certifies it to NSLDS. This triggers the process of placing the student’s loans into repayment or a grace period.

Reporting Guidelines for Non-Required Academic Term (e.g., summer)

  • Typically, a student is not withdrawn (W) during a non-required term if 1) the student is in an active status for the prior required term and 2) is expected to return for the next scheduled required term.
  • Typically, if your financial aid office completes a return to Title IV (R2T4) or post-withdrawal disbursement (PWD) that is effective during a non-required term, you should report the student’s withdrawn status and accurate effective date to the Clearinghouse. This ensures consistency between campus-level and program-level reporting and helps support timely loan servicing and updates for federal grant recipients.

IMPORTANT: Understanding Error Flags to Ensure Compliant Enrollment Status Effective Date Reporting

  • Students are considered continuously enrolled during non-required terms, unless they were marked as Withdrawn (W) in the preceding required term. This makes it especially important to ensure the enrollment status effective dates for the academic term that follows a non-required term are accurate.
  • Enrollment file Error Resolution on the Web (ERW) has warning logic that flags records that may need a different enrollment status effective date than is provided on the incoming file. The ERW warning flag(s) compute an effective date based on NSLDS guidelines to help ensure consistent tracking of continuous enrollment. When a warning is triggered, you must acknowledge the computed date, revert to the original enrollment effective date on the incoming file, or adjust it during the enrollment reporting and withdrawal process as determined by the institution.
  • These warning flags are described in this Compliance Central update, Warning Codes 292 and series 1861-1866 and 1901-1906.

For non-required terms, when a federal aid student is reported through Student Look-Up’s online update as Less than Half-Time (L) at the campus level, the Clearinghouse communicates this status to loan servicers and certifies it to NSLDS. This triggers the process of placing loan borrowers into repayment or a grace period.

Reporting a Less than Half-Time status with an effective date during a non-required term (e.g., summer) via Student Look-Up’s online update will result in the updated status being sent to NSLDS on the roster process. Unlike incoming summer files, this type of update bypasses the roster logic and certifies the updated status as-is. Please keep this in mind when making updates to ensure alignment with enrollment reporting compliance expectations.

Scenario: Student is at least Half-Time during a required term (e.g., spring) and Less than Half-Time during a non-required term (e.g., summer)

In alignment with NSLDS reporting expectations, students who are at least Half-Time in a required spring term and reported as Less than Half-Time on a Summer-First or Summer-Subsequent file are certified to NSLDS with their spring status on the roster process.

If you have any questions about submitting online updates during non-required terms, please contact us at
schoolops@studentclearinghouse.org.

Table: Reporting Guidance for Non-Required Term Enrollment

To support accurate reporting during non-required term enrollment, please follow the recommendations under “School Action to Report” in the table below

Spring Term Enrollment Summer Term Enrollment School Action to Report Clearinghouse Action Reported to NSLDS
Active status, expected to return Not enrolled Do not include student in summer reporting. Recertify spring enrollment.
Active status (H or greater) Less than half-time Report summer enrollment as is. Suppress less than half-time and re-certify spring enrollment.
Active status At least half-time (H or greater) Report summer enrollment as is. Report active summer status.
Active status Half-time summer, drops to less than half-time Report summer enrollment as is. Suppress less than half-time and re-certify at least half-time status.
Active status Less than half-time or greater, drops summer courses Report active summer status. Report active summer status.
Active Status Withdraws spring, not returning Report withdrawn (W) status. Report withdrawn (W) status.
Active Status Withdraws summer, not returning Report withdrawn (W) status. Report withdrawn (W) status.
No enrollment or withdrawn (W) effective spring At least less than half-time Report summer enrollment as is. Report active summer status.

 

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