1
Recipient’s Funding Certification and Agreement
Emergency Financial Aid Grants to Students under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and
Economic Security (CARES) Act
Section 18004(a)(1) of the CARES Act, Pub. L. No. 116-136 (March 27, 2020), authorizes
the Secretary of Education (“Secretary”) to allocate formula grant funds in the amount of
$_____________________ to __________________________________________(“Recipient”).
Section 18004(c) of the CARES Act requires Recipient to use no less than fifty percent of the
funds received to provide emergency financial aid grants to students for expenses related to the
disruption of campus operations due to coronavirus (including eligible expenses under a student’s
cost of attendance such as food, housing, course materials, technology, health care, and child care).
This Certification and Agreement solely concerns the emergency financial aid grants to students
under Section 18004(c) of the CARES Act.
To address the pressing financial need of students due to the disruption of campus operations
from coronavirus, and pursuant to the authority duly delegated to the Secretary under the CARES Act
and associated with the coronavirus emergency, as stated in Proclamation 9994 of March 13, 2020,
“Declaring a National Emergency Concerning the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)
Outbreak,” Federal Register Vol. 85, No. 53 at 15337-38, the Secretary and Recipient agree as
follows:
1. The Secretary will provide Recipient fifty (50) percent of its formula grant funds (the
“advanced funds”) for the sole and exclusive purpose of providing emergency financial aid grants to
students for their expenses related to the disruption of campus operations due to coronavirus, such as
food, housing, course materials, technology, health care, and child-care expenses.
2. Recipient agrees to promptly make available emergency financial aid grants from the
advanced funds directly to students for their expenses related to the disruption of campus operations
due to coronavirus, such as food, housing, course materials, technology, health care, and child-care
expenses. Recipient shall not use the advanced funds to reimburse itself for any costs or expenses,
including but not limited to any costs associated with significant changes to the delivery of instruction
due to the coronavirus and/or any refunds or other benefits that Recipient previously issued to
students.
3. Recipient retains discretion to determine the amount of each individual emergency
financial aid grant consistent with all applicable laws including non-discrimination laws. Recipient
acknowledges that the Secretary recommends the maximum Federal Pell Grant for the applicable
award year as an appropriate maximum amount for a student’s emergency financial aid grant in most
cases, and the Recipient should be mindful of each student’s particular socioeconomic circumstances
in the staging and administration of these grants. The Secretary strongly encourages Recipient’s
financial aid administrator to exercise the use of professional judgment available under Section 479A
of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA), 20 U.S.C § 1087tt, to make adjustments on a case-by-
case basis to exclude individual emergency financial aid grants from the calculation of a student’s
expected family contribution. The Secretary does not consider these individual emergency financial
aid grants to constitute Federal financial aid under Title IV of the HEA.