Can We Increase the Book Allowance For Some Students But Not All Students?

Scenario: The school has 20 students who are taking a particular course, and the book costs are $1,000. For all other students, the books, course materials, supplies and equipment would normally cost $300. We want to know if we are able to increase the books, course materials, supplies and equipment allowance to $1,000 for just the 20 students, or if we have to increase the allowance to $1,000 for all students.

Answer: Schools may use actual expenses when the cost of attendance (COA) normally uses an average of expenses in any given category. This approach may be applied to an individual student or to a group of students, without obligating the school to apply the same approach to all students.

Each school should develop institutional policies as guidelines for customizing standard COA components, as well as for adjusting any COA components to accommodate extraordinary expenses using professional judgment (PJ) authority on a case-by-case basis. Any customizations or adjustments must be documented in the student’s records.

For additional information please see Volume 3, Chapter 2 of the FSA Handbook.

Note: Effective with the 2023-24 award year, the COA component for “books and supplies” has been renamed “books, course materials, supplies, and equipment.” Additionally, the COA components for “books, course materials, supplies, and equipment,” for “transportation,” and for “miscellaneous” are now separate cost components. See Section 472 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA), as amended, [20 USC 1087LL]. 

See the GEN-22-15 for more information.