Courses Covered Expenses Covered
Provider Applications Educational Development Plan
Participating Schools Application Process
Reimbursement Process Application Fees
Statement of Course Completion Dropping Courses
Testing Fees Correspondence/Distance Education
Assistance may be used for either degree-seeking or non-degree seeking courses. This includes most credit and non-credit courses provided by schools listed in the current publication of "Accredited Institutions of Postsecondary Education" or by private occupational/vocational schools recognized by the State Boards of Vocational Education or other accepted state regulated agencies.
Classes or courses with the primary
purpose of recreation or personal enjoyment, rather than career or educational
development (e.g. Weight Watchers, Golf, Martial Arts)
are not eligible for Tuition Assistance funding.
For providers that are not listed in the "Accredited institutions of Postsecondary Education" or regulated by an accepted state agency, approval for Tuition Assistance funding may be granted upon the completion and acceptance of an Application for Provider Status form. Private educational providers who wish to be considered for approval for ICD funded courses must complete the form and return it to the Director. The Director will then make a recommendation and forward the application to the Institute for Career Development office. The Institute for Career Development will then make a determination as to the status of the provider application. All decisions of the Institute for Career Development are final.
Tuition Assistance is available in the amount of $1,800.00 per calendar year. Expenses covered include: tuition, required fees, and required texts. Expenses that are not covered include: supplemental texts, tools, software, or supplies and parking expenses.
For schools that participate in the voucher program, a student may present a Career Development voucher to the school in lieu of personal payment.
If a steelworker is eligible to receive
assistance or reimbursement from any other source, no duplication of payment
will be made to that employee.
Tuition Assistance may be paid before course completion for students who are in good program standing. In order to remain a student in good standing, a student must abide by the regulations of the program. These requirements include that the student submit a statement of satisfactory course completion to the Director.
Individuals' Tuition Assistance and Customized Courses Spending Limits may be combined in exceptional cases. (See customized combined expenses policy.)
Many local programs have sought to
combine available funds to support intense participation in developing
vocational expertise. The Governing Board approved this policy, which was
recommended by the Advisory Board, on their meeting on 6/6/05.
The
objective of this policy is to explore what happens when individuals with clear
career goals are allowed to accelerate progress through more flexible access to
program funds. The Local Joint Committee (LJC) would approve and monitor
combined usage of both Tuition Assistance (TA) and Customized Course (CC) funds
either for a degree program or for a certificate program. For example, given
current limits on TA and CC spending, up to $3,800 would be made available for
qualifying individuals to apply to either tuition bills or to customized course
expenditures in a given year.
All
standards applicable to the use of Career Development funds for TA and CC as
outlined in the ICD Field Policy Manual (pp. 20-21, 24-26) remain intact.
The
LJC is responsible for fulfilling all of the following four exception
guidelines when allowing an individual to combine TA and CC funds:
1.
In some instances it may be appropriate for a participating Steelworker to
petition the LJC to spend over the limits of his/her TA and CC yearly allotment
in order to complete a specified course of study leading to certification or a
degree which is recognized by an accredited national body.
2.
The LJC will maintain spending limits in compliance with established Governing
Board policy and will consider extenuating circumstances on a case-by-case
basis when reviewing a Steelworker’s petition to exceed his/her TA/CC yearly
allotment.
3.
The LJC will regularly monitor the expenditure of funds from the TA and CC
categories to insure than any Steelworker’s account does not exceed the limits
as established by the ICD Governing Board Policy and as enforced by the LJC and
the ICD national office in Merrillville, IN.
4.
If a Steelworker seeks to combine his/her TA and CC funds in accordance with
this policy, LJCs would be required to (a) secure written approval from the ICD
national office on a case-by-case basis, and (b) maintain an Educational
Development Plan (EDP) on file at the site.
This
new policy is a one-year test to see if the change is viable. The Governing
Board is scheduled to review the policy in 2006.
For a student that is interested in pursuing a career goal in an area of study that is normally classified as personal enhancement, an Educational Development Plan must be on file and approved for payment for this type of study plan. Once submitted to the Director, the plan would be reviewed and the Director would make a recommendation for approval or denial of the Plan to the Local Joint Committee (LJC). The LJC has the final authority to determine if the Plan is consistent with the goals of the ICD program and approve or deny the Plan.
An example of a personal enhancement course of study that would require an Educational Development Plan would be a student that wanted to pursue a degree in a musical area. The Educational Development Plan would detail the path the student wanted to pursue to reach the educational goal as well as the general cost information related to achieving the goals.
Currently, Tuition Assistance payments are paid by an ICD voucher at the following schools:
Allegheny Community
College
www.ccac.edu
Duquesne University www.duq.edu/index.html
Eastern Gateway Community College www.egcc.edu
Empire State College www.esc.edu
ExecuTrain www.executrain.com/pittsburgh
Franciscan University
of Steubenville www.franciscan.edu
Jefferson County
Joint Vocational School www.jcjvs.k12.oh.us
J. D. Rockefeller VoTech http:\\jdrcc.hanc.tec.wv.us
Kent State University www.kent.edu
New Horizons Computer
Training Center www.newhorizons.com
Ohio State University www.osu.edu
Ohio University -
Belmont Campuswww.ohiou.edu
Penn State www.psu.edu
Pittsburgh Bartender
School www.bartenderschool.com
Pittsburgh School of
Massage Therapy www.naturalhealers.com
Point Park College www.pointpark.edu
Riverhead Training www.riverheadtraining.com
TDDS Professional
Truck Driving School www.tdds.com
West Liberty University westliberty.edu
West Virginia
Northern Community College www.northern.wvnet.edu
West Virginia
University www.wvu.edu
Wheeling Jesuit
University www.wju.edu
Before a student begins a course, he or she
should schedule an appointment with the Director for an academic counseling
session. At that time, the Director will assess the educational goals of the
student and make recommendations to the educational plan.
Once a student has decided on a course of
study, he or she should register at the desired school. The billing office of
the school must provide the student with a detailed invoice. The invoice should
list the tuition, and required fees. If possible, the student should also have
the bookstore clerk provide price information about the required textbooks.
The student should then schedule an appointment with the Director to complete a Request for Tuition Assistance. This form requires personal employment and demographic information as well as the specifics of the course(s) for which the student is requesting assistance. This request should be submitted at least two weeks before the payment is due. This allows time for the Director to complete a Tuition Assistance Voucher for approval. The Director must get a designated LJC union and company official to approve the voucher. Once the Director has the appropriate approvals, he or she will then forward the voucher to the student's address.
The student then will present the voucher to
the school billing office. The billing office will directly bill the ICD Center for the applicable charges.
If a student wishes to attend a school that
is not in the voucher program, that student should request for the Director to
contact the school and attempt to negotiate an agreement to accept the voucher
system. If time does not permit this or the school declines to participate in
the program, the student must make payment to the school and submit the
itemized receipt to the Director for reimbursement. The reimbursement process
takes approximately four weeks and a payment will be mailed directly to the
student's address.
A Request for Tuition Assistance must
be approved before reimbursement will be made. For this reason, students should
apply for the Tuition Assistance before making personal payment to the school.
If the education institution that a
steelworker chooses to attend has an application fee that must be submitted
before the student is accepted for admission, that fee must be initially paid
by the student. After the student has completed a course at the educational
provider where the application fee was paid, the student may apply for
reimbursement of that application fee.
At the end of your Tuition Assistance course,
you must present a formal statement of satisfactory completion from the school.
For credit courses, this should be in the form of a report card. Non-credit
course completions may be documented through completion certificates or a statement
of satisfactory course completion on school letterhead from the Registrar.
Students who do not submit this evidence of
satisfactory course completion or make an explanation to the Director for an
appeal may not be approved for future Tuition Assistance.
In the event that the student does not
complete a course, future Tuition Assistance may be limited to reimbursement at
the satisfactory completion of a course. If a course has been completed, but
the student does not receive a passing grade (D or above), that student may be
required to obtain additional academic assistance as recommended by the
Director before being permitted to apply for future Tuition Assistance funds.
Students who change from grade to audit
status or who do not complete any course for which ICD expends Tuition
Assistance funds will be restricted to receiving reimbursement at the
completion of courses for the maximum of one calendar year from the starting
date of the course that was dropped or at minimum for one complete term of
courses for which the student registers.
ICD Tuition Assistance funds may not be used
for courses in which a student intends to audit the class.
If a student drops a class that was paid with
Tuition Assistance funds and receives a refund from the educational provider
for any portion of the tuition or fees, that refund must be forfeited to the
ICD Center. Failure to do so may make a student ineligible for any future ICD
programs.
A student's competency exam testing fees that
are taken to gain academic credit in lieu of completing a course are eligible
for Tuition Assistance. CLEP exam fees are also covered as are Accredited
License study courses. However, licensing tests or test fees (such as a real
estate license, CDL, stationary steam engineer) are not eligible for Tuition
Assistance.
Requests for Tuition Assistance for
correspondence programs should be completed before the correspondence program is
started. Students must make the full payments for correspondence programs from
personal funds. Correspondence programs are not eligible for reimbursement
until the ICD Center receives a certificate of course completion and proof of
payment.
Tuition Assistance for non-degree seeking correspondence courses is limited to 50% of the tuition amount to an annual maximum of $900.00 for correspondence programs. The amount expended for correspondence programs is deducted from the annual Tuition Assistance maximum of $1,800.00.
For example, if a student takes a $2,000.00
correspondence course the maximum reimbursement would be $900.00 (50% of the
cost to the annual maximum of $900.00). That student would then still be
eligible for up to $900.00 for traditional Tuition Assistance.
Another example would be a steelworker who completes a $700 correspondence program and would be eligible for a $350.00 reimbursement (50% of the tuition). That student would still have $1,450.00 available for Tuition Assistance of which up to $550.00 could be used on other correspondence programs.
The only exception to the 50% rule for correspondence courses is that payment may be made at 100% without the limitation of the $900 rule if the program for which the student enrolls is a state recognized formal Associate, Bachelors, or Graduate college degree program. Payment for such correspondence programs will still be subject to reimbursement upon completion; but may be paid at the full 100% reimbursement of eligible expenses subject to the annual maximum of $1,800.