The Office of Inspector General (OIG) consistently dedicates significant resources to the oversight of Federal student assistance programs programs due to the risks associated with their complexity, high levels of funding, large numbers of program participants, and reliance on contractors. Through the office of Federal Student Aid (FSA), the U.S. Department of Education (Department) disbursed about $120.8 billion in Federal student assistance in fiscal year (FY) 2024 and manages or oversees an outstanding loan portfolio valued at more than $1.6 trillion. This makes the Department one of the largest financial institutions in the country. As such, effective internal controls within FSA are critical. The purpose of this report is to summarize the OIG's oversight and investigative work involving Federal student assistance programs and operations over the past 6 FYs--FY 2019 through FY 2024--and to provide FSA with context on historical areas of weakness involving internal controls. To identify common themes across internal control vulnerabilities identified during the audit work, OIG evaluated recommendations made in OIG reports to address those vulnerabilities and assessed their correlation with each internal control component. And, in this effort, complaints received by the OIG Hotline specific to Federal student assistance programs and FSA operations to identify trends and fraud indicators were analyzed, investigative results related to student aid fraud were summarized, and their correlation to internal controls were assessed. OIG also took a close look at a type of fraud that accounts for a large portion of their student aid fraud investigative caseload--student aid fraud rings. The results of this effort are intended to provide context on historical areas of weakness and vulnerabilities in FSA's internal controls identified through the OIG's audit work and provide insight gleaned from the OIG's investigative work on the importance of strengthening internal controls to help mitigate the risk of fraud in the Federal student assistance programs. By strengthening its internal controls, FSA can better ensure that Federal student assistance programs are carried out as required, achieve the desired results, and that vital Federal student aid assistance reach the intended recipients.