News 12 at 6 o'clock, Thursday, January 13, 2011

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Keri Badger has career goals, and hers began recently at a local elementary school.

"She's worked her way up from the bottom, started as a custodian ... loves teaching kids," said her husband Perry.

"The more I work with the children, the more I wanted to become a teacher," Keri said.

She juggled work, taking the kids to school, caring for her disabled husband, and, yes, her own homework.

Said Perry: "I've seen her sit on the computer from six o'clock in the afternoon to two or three in the morning to get her schoolwork done, to turn and get up at 5:30 to start the process all over again."

Keri graduated from the University of Phoenix in December. Her diploma came yesterday. But what she still doesn't have is $3,000 in federal Pell Grant money. She says it was due to come in August.

Keri also says the school first wanted more information on her financial aid application, then gave other reasons the money wasn't there.

The family received a letter confirming their eligibility and estimated the money would be there in December. It hasn't come.

A U.S. Department of Education spokesperson tells News 12 there's no official complaint process for students that haven't gotten financial aid. That means it's up to students to rely on the colleges to get the money, with no one to check on them to make sure they're actually paying.

"That's coming out of my pocket," said Keri, "so that's putting us behind on what we would normally be caught up on."

The University of Phoenix said they couldn't discuss other students because of privacy issues, but they later didn't return calls seeking comment on their general process of how long it takes to pay out financial aid they receive from the government.

New regulations go into effect into July pushing schools to pay financial aid disbursements to students within 7-10 business days, but a U.S. Dept. of Ed. spokesperson said she was unsure if that included any extra measures for to keep those schools accountable.

To avoid your financial aid getting delayed, stick to the FAFSA deadline, usually around March 1 for the following semesters.