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Work-Study Instructions

Work-Study Instructions

Overview of work-study

Federal Work-Study (FWS) is a program through the U.S. Department of Education that provides funds for students with financial need, allowing IU Indianapolis students to earn money to help offset the costs of higher education. Approximately 3,000 IU Indianapolis students are offered work-study awards each academic year as part of their financial aid packages. Students can then secure a part-time job on campus and in approved community work-study agencies to work and to receive a biweekly paycheck.

Through hiring students who have been awarded work-study, departments and approved community work-study agencies not only provide students with financial need valuable skills and academically relevant work experiences but also receive a financial incentive through paying just 25% of students' wages up to their award amounts. The remaining 75% is subsidized by the federal government.

Description of the video:

SPEAKER: Welcome to the Office of Student Employment. We are so excited that you have hired a student who has a federal work-study award. Let's start off by meeting a couple of important individuals from our office.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

MICHELE GEORGE: Hi, welcome to the Office of Student Employment, and my name is Michelle George. I am the student employment consultant here in the Office of Student Employment. I will work closely with you and your students connected in your work-study award, to their work-study position. Also, I have the opportunity to work very close with our community work-study coordinator, Angie Cannon. I will now allow Angie to introduce herself.

ANGIE CANNON: Hi, I'm Angie cannon. I'm the community work-study coordinator. I work with students doing background checks and I-9 verifications. I also work with community work-study agencies. And I look forward to working with you in the community work-study program.

SPEAKER: Now that you have met Angie and Michelle, let's begin. Angie and Michelle work hand-in-hand to handle the process of eDoc approval, adjustments to work-study, background checks, and I-9 appointments for community work-study agencies. There is an e-learning course entitled All Things Work-Study that was developed to help supervisors, payroll processors, and fiscal officers understand work-study and how it works here IUPUI.

But now, let's talk about work-study. You posted a job on the Handshake, which led to getting an awesome student employee for hire. The student employee has completed that Federal Work-Study authorization form and met the background check and I-9 requirements.

The next step is to give the Federal Work-Study authorization form to your payroll processor to attach to the eDoc. The payroll processor must attach the form to the eDoc at the time of submission. In some cases, the form is not attached, which would cause Angie to reach out to you.

It also puts a delay in the approval process for the student. Federal Work-Study authorization forms must be attached to all hire and maintain eDocs. If you ever have questions about work-study or a certain situation, please email us at fwsjobs@iupui.edu. Our office will notify you of any changes to your student employee's work-study award.

We work closely with the Office of Student Financial Services, who determines eligibility for work-study awards. They let us know when an award is increased, decreased, or removed from the student's account. The decrease or removal situations happen if the student has received a scholarship, withdraws from classes, or they are no longer eligible to use their work-study award.

We hope that this information has been helpful to you. And as we've mentioned before, do not hesitate to email us at fwsjobs@iupui.edu for any work-study related questions. Be sure to have an awesome year.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

How to recruit work-study students

All student employee job postings must be posted to IU Indianapolis's job board, which includes a question to indicate whether your position is limited to candidates with a work-study award to filter accordingly for students who match your requirements. Also, supervisors, departments, and approved community work-study agencies may include the blurb below in the qualifications section of the job posting.

This position is limited to candidates with a Federal Work-Study Program award. To verify you have a work-study award, please go to your One.IU.edu account (look under Student Center and Financial Aid Summary). If you have an award, it will be listed with the rest of your financial aid (e.g., loans, grants, scholarships). This video will direct you to the correct screen. You may also email the Office of Student Financial Services to inquire about eligibility.

Identifying students with work-study funds

We encourage employers who want to hire students with work-study funds to request that students provide confirmation of a work-study award during the interview to verify they have received a FWS award for the current term. Students can learn how to print their financial aid notification as verification by using this print your financial aid notification tutorial.

Timeframe	Award eligibility dates
AY 2024–2025 authorization form is available.	Students can begin working on August 4, 2024; the last day to earn work-study funding is May 10, 2025.

Getting agency approval for the Community Work-Study (CWS) Program

The CWS approval and agency management process has transitioned to the Office of Student Employment at IU Indianapolis. To be considered as a CWS-approved agency, the agency must be a nonprofit or a government entity. Agencies must go through the application and vetting process to be eligible to hire students with work-study awards. If you are interested in learning more about this program or have any questions about this process, email fwsjobs@iu.edu for more information and guidance.

Hiring a student with a work-study award

The hiring process for a student with a work-study award is essentially the same as hiring a student who does not have a work-study award, with the exception of an online form required for each position at the beginning of every academic term (twice a calendar year—once for fall/spring and once for summer). Once a background check on the student is successfully completed and the I-9 employment eligibility verification process has begun, supervisors and departments can provide the following instructions to students to connect their work-study awards to their positions.

Office of Student Employment
Supervising Resources