The Quality Assurance Program was authorized under Section 487A of the Higher Education Act (HEA) of 1965, as amended in 1998. To learn how to apply to the Quality Assurance Program access the Federal Register published on 2/26/2008 by clicking on the following link:
http://ifap.ed.gov/fregisters/FR022620081.html.

Schools that are accepted into the program sign an amendment to their Program Participation Agreement (PPA). Schools develop their own verification requirements and are exempt from the following regulations:

668.53(a)(1) through (4) - Policies and Procedures for verifying student aid application data.  It is important though that you document your process and verification criteria in your verification policies and procedures.

668.54(a)(1)(2) and (4) - Applicants to be Verified - The exemption is from having to verify records selected by the CPS. Instead, you get to determine what your institutional verification criteria should be by using data from the ISIR Analysis Tool and analyzing your applicants.

668.56 The exemption allows you the flexibility to determine which ISIR elements you want to verify.  Again, the ISIR Analysis Tool reports will help you with this determination.

668.57 The exemption allows you the flexibility to determine what "acceptable documentation" is to verify the ISIR elements you have selected for verification.

668.60(a) The exemption provides you the flexibility to establish your own time frames for students to submit documentation.

Additional details regarding the program can be viewed at:  http://ifap.ed.gov/qahome/training.html - Select "Getting Started with the QA Program".