Best Practices For Student Financial Responsibility Agreements: AR 21-02

A student financial responsibility agreement provides relevant information about official institutional policies to students and contractually binds them to those policies. Additionally, the agreement assists the institution and its collection agency partners when complying with laws and regulations.

Priority subjects include a promise to pay, collections, and communication. Optional subjects address financial aid, billing, returned payments, withdrawal, privacy rights, and more.

The 2021 updates to the advisory—

• Address new case law developments related to the assessment of collection fees
• Include updated language on students revoking consent to be called/texted using automated telephone dialing equipment
• Add a sample severability clause
• Modify the arbitration/mediation section as result of new regulations that went into effect in July 2020

Any institution reviewing this material should have all provisions of a student financial responsibility agreement reviewed by an attorney in the appropriate jurisdiction to make certain that chosen provisions and language are clear, accurate, and legally enforceable.

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