The Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) mandated that GAO conduct a study on Education's enforcement of the incentive compensation ban in light of the safe harbors and report on the number of violations substantiated by the Secretary of Education since 1998, the nature of these violations, and the names of the institutions involved. This report provides information on violations of the incentive compensation ban substantiated by the Secretary since 1998. In summary, GAO found that between 1998 and 2009 Education substantiated incentive compensation violations at 32 schools. Of the 32 schools with substantiated violations, 17 schools were found to have violated the ban in the 5 years before final safe harbor regulations were published on November 1, 2002, and 15 schools were found to have violated the ban in the 7 years afterward. Many of the violations involved payments by schools to their staff in the form of bonuses or commissions for successfully enrolling students in the school, while a smaller number involved payments to third party contractors or noncash rewards to staff for successfully enrolling students. In addition to finding violations at 32 schools, Education entered into settlement agreements with 22 other schools. Education does not have data on the total number of school reviews and audits initiated by the Secretary and outside auditors for potential violations of the incentive compensation ban during the time period under review. For this reason, it is unknown whether the total number of reviews and audits conducted each year has changed over the course of this time period and what percentage of these cases have resulted in substantiated violations. This report contains three enclosures: (1) Department of Education Safe Harbor Regulations; (2) List of Violations Substantiated by the Department of Education; and (3) GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments. (Contains 1 table and 17 footnotes.)