fafsa and application processing system update · • the cps test system is made available • cps...
TRANSCRIPT
Presented by the Illinois Student Assistance Commission
Adapted from presentations given by the
U.S. Department of Education at the
2014 FSA Training Conference
FAFSA® and Application
Processing System Update
Agenda
• New FAFSA resources
• Scheduled enhancements for January 1, 2015
• Planned changes for April, 2015
• Important dates
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New FAFSA resources
3
The FAFSA Process
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Who’s My Parent?
5
The IRS Data Retrieval Tool
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Scheduled enhancements for
January 1, 2015
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Foster Care Youth
Issue: Legislation now requires the FAFSA to ask applicants if they’ve
ever been in foster care.
Solution: A new question will display in FAFSA on the Web, and students
who answer “Yes” will receive messaging about potential resources
available to them.
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Foster Care Youth (Cont’d)
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Foster Care Youth (Cont’d)
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Foster Care Youth (Cont’d)
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Freely Associated States
Issue: Students from the Freely Associated States often use a new
pseudo-SSN each year. This became problematic with the
implementation of Pell LEU.
Solution: FSA will provide guidance to returning students who are from the
Freely Associated States to use the pseudo-SSN already assigned
to them when they complete the FAFSA in subsequent years.
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Freely Associated States (Cont’d)
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Freely Associated States (Cont’d)
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Freely Associated States (Cont’d)
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Text Updates
Issue: Members of the financial aid community have identified specific FAFSA
questions that are particularly troublesome for applicants.
Solution: Question labels and help text will be modified to provide clearer
guidance.
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Date of Legal Residence
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Neither Citizen Nor Eligible Noncitizen
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High School Diploma
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Parents’ Number in College
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Question 74: How many people in your parents’ household (from question 73) will be
college students between July 1, 2015 and June 30, 2016?
Legal Parent
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Legal Parent (Cont’d)
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Amended Return
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If you, the parent(s), filed a Form 1040X Amended U.S.
Individual Income Tax Return for 2014, select Yes; otherwise,
select No. The Form 1040X is used to correct your original filed
tax return. You are not eligible to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool
if you amended your 2014 federal tax return.
Availability of IRS DRT
24
Separated
For FAFSA purposes, a married couple is separated if the couple is
considered legally separated by a state, or if the couple is legally
married but has chosen to live separate lives, including living in
separate households, as though they were not married. If you and
your spouse are separated but living together, select “I am married /
remarried,” not “I am separated.”
NOTE: When two married persons live as a married couple but are
separated by physical distance (or have separate households), they
are considered married for FAFSA purposes.
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Gender
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Adding text to tell applicant that all schools
selected will receive the list of selected schools
Adding text to tell applicant students that for
federal purposes it does not matter in what order
schools are listed but it may be important for
state purposes
In Illinois, the order in which schools are listed does not
matter for ISAC programs
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List of Colleges Receiving FAFSA Data
School Selection
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School Selection (Cont’d)
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School Selection (Cont’d)
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Planned changes for April, 2015
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FSA ID
Issue: The FSA ID (username and password) will replace PIN for students,
parents and borrowers accessing FSA systems starting on April 25,
2015.
Solution: FAFSA on the Web will be updated to require users to authenticate with the FSA ID rather than the PIN.
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Introducing the FSA ID (Session #57)
• FSA is adopting the best practice of
using a username and password
instead of personal information
• The FSA ID • Requires users to enter less information (2 fields
instead of 4)
• Provides more secure access to user’s
information
• Links to PIN information during registration
• Allows users to update personal information such
as last name changes without applying for a new
FSA ID (Lifetime ID)
• The FSA ID (Username and Password)
will replace PIN for students, parents,
and borrowers accessing FSA systems
starting in late Spring 2015.
New FSA ID login
Old PIN login on Studentloans.gov
The FSA ID will modernize access for students, parents, and borrowers to FSA systems
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Introducing the FSA ID (Session #57)
Users still click the Sign In button. This directs them to the FSA ID login page. Once they enter their FSA ID,
they are directed back to the website landing page
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Introducing the FSA ID (Session #57) • Will students and borrowers be able to access their
previous FAFSA and loan information ?
• Yes. The FSA ID will allow a student or borrower to access all the
information that they can today with a PIN
• Will Customer Support change?
• The customer help desk which currently supports the PIN, will
support the FSA ID.
• Will school and other professional access to student
and borrower information be affected by the change
to FSA ID?
• No. The FSA ID is for students, parents, and borrowers to login to
FSA’s student and borrower-based websites
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Verification – Policy (Session GS3)
For the 2014-15 award year
• Eliminated SNAP (V2) as a separate verification group
• Added household resources group (V6)
• Added other untaxed income and benefits as a
verification item
For the 2015-16 award year
• No changes
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Important Dates
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• September 2014 • 2015-16 EFC Formula Guide on the IFAP website, pending final
2014 IRS tax legislation
• October 2014 • 2015-16 SAR Comment Codes and Text
• 2015-16 CPS Test System User Guide
• 2015-16 Electronic Data Exchange (EDE) Technical Reference -
Final
• 2015-16 ISIR Guide on IFAP
• November 2014 • 2015-16 Summary of Changes for the Application Processing
System Guide
• December 2014 • FAFSA on the Web Preview Presentation
• The CPS Test System is made available
• CPS Web Applications Demo System, December 28, 2014
Important Dates
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Important Dates (Cont’d)
• January 2015 • 2015-16 Application Processing System Specifications for
Software Developers - Final
• Application launch January 1, 2015
• February 2015 • IRS Data Retrieval Tool February 1, 2015
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FSA Conference Materials fsaconferences.ed.gov
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2015-16
MAP Processing
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MAP Pilot Program for Dislocated Workers
• For the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 academic years, ISAC must give
additional consideration to the needs of dislocated workers
• The intent is to allow applicants who are dislocated workers an
opportunity to receive a Monetary Award Program (MAP) grant even if
applying later than the general pool of applicants
• ISAC must estimate an amount needed to serve dislocated workers who
file FAFSAs through the summer months and reserve dollars to serve
those applicants
• After stopping award announcements for the general pool of applicants
ISAC will continue to make awards only to dislocated workers through the
summer
• The agency will subsequently analyze student data to try to determine the
success of those students who receive grants as a result of this program
MAP Pilot Program for Dislocated Workers
• For more information:
• ISAC’s State Legislative Update, July 2, 2014
• www.isac.org/e-library/press-releases-and-state-legislative-updates/isac-state-legislative-
updates/index.html
• Public Act 098-0967
• ilga.gov/legislation/publicacts/fulltext.asp?Name=098-0967
From Public Act 098-0967 …
• The General Assembly finds and declares that it is an important purpose of
the Monetary Award Program to facilitate access to college both for students
who pursue postsecondary education immediately following high school and
for those who pursue postsecondary education later in life, particularly
Illinoisans who are dislocated workers with financial need and who are
seeking to improve their economic position through education. For the 2015-
2016 and 2016-2017 academic years, the Commission shall give additional
and specific consideration to the needs of dislocated workers with the intent
of allowing applicants who are dislocated workers an opportunity to secure
financial assistance even if applying later than the general pool of applicants.
The Commission's consideration shall include, in determining the number of
grants to be offered, an estimate of the resources needed to serve dislocated
workers who apply after the Commission initially suspends award
announcements for the upcoming regular academic year, but prior to the
beginning of that academic year. For the purposes of this subsection (e-5), a
dislocated worker is defined as in the federal Workforce Investment Act of
1998.
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Implementation of the Pilot Program
• Independent students who answer “yes” to Question 102 on the
2015-16 FAFSA -- As of today, are you (or your spouse) a dislocated
worker? -- will be considered applicants who receive “additional and
specific consideration”
• As a result, independent student applicants who are dislocated workers
(DW) will have a later suspense date than other MAP applicants
• For the purposes of MAP, a student who answers “yes” to FAFSA Question
102 on any transaction is considered a dislocated worker applicant for the
entire academic year
• Because the answer to FAFSA Question 102 could include the
spouse, schools will need to confirm that the student, not the spouse,
is the DW at the time of payment request
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GAP Access Modified to Identify DW Students
• On the “Student List Eligibility” screen, the DW fields are to
the far right of the initial view
• If the Student or Spouse DW field is “Y”, the student answered yes to
FAFSA Question 102 on one or more transactions in the academic year
• If the field is blank, they answered “no” or “I don’t know” to FAFSA
Question 102 on their transactions for the academic year
• Because DW applicants will
have a later suspend date
than other applicants, a
column for DW Suspend was
added along with the
Student or Spouse DW field
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Student List Eligibility: Filter Screen
• The Filter, Sort and Columns screens include DW options
• The Filter screen allows the user to select only those students that
are considered DW for MAP purposes by checking the Student or
Spouse DW checkbox
• It will also allow
users to
select
DW Suspend
students
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Student Detail: Eligibility Screen
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• The “Student Eligibility Detail screen includes fields that
will indicate if a student is a DW for MAP purposes
• “Y” if the applicant answered yes to the DW question on the FAFSA
for any transaction
• “Blank” if no.
• If a student is a DW and is in DW Suspense, the DW
Suspend field will be populated with an “S”
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Student List Eligibility Screen
• Two new icons have been added to assist users in
determining which DW students are in Suspense
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Student List Eligibility Screen
• The enclosed yellow question mark -- -- means that a
DW student is in DW suspense, meaning that the student
has missed both the regular suspense date and the DW
suspense date
• Because the student is
ineligible based on the
information provided, the
yellow light bulb is shown
along with this icon
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Student List Eligibility Screen
• The regular question mark -- -- identifies a DW student
that has missed the regular suspense date but has not
missed the DW suspense date
• This student is in MAP Suspense
but not DW Suspense.
• Although the yellow light bulb
appears on this record, which
usually indicates ineligibility,
if this student is confirmed as a
DW at the time of the payment
request, the payment request
will be processed
58
MAP File Layout Specifications
• The MAP 160-byte file layout specifications have been
updated for the 2015-16 processing cycle
• This file is pertinent to schools that utilize the file extraction feature of
the MAP system or for submitting payment requests via File Transfer
Protocol (FTP)
• Eligibility Status File (ESF) records are identified as Record Type 7
• Payment requests, cancellations and results are identified as Record
Types 4, 5 & 6
• The MAP File
Specifications
are available in the
Electronic Tools
section of the
e-Library
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MAP File Layout Specifications
• Three fields were added to the 160-byte file:
• Field 43 DISLOCATED WORKER INDICATOR X(01);
previously FILLER X(01); field added to record types
2 and 7
• Field 45 DISLOCATED WORKER SUSPENSE FLAG
X(01); previously FILLER X(02); field added to record
types 2 and 7
• Field 46 DISLOCATED WORKER CONFIRM STUDENT
X(01); field added to record types 4,5 and 6
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2014-15 MAP
Processing Update
Second Term Processing
• Second-term claims that were submitted in early January
and subsequently held have now been released for
payment
• Results began appearing in GAP Access on January 16, 2015
• Colleges that have not yet begun submitting second-term
claims may now begin to do so
• As announced in ISAC’s January 14 e-Message, the
Monetary Award Program will not be subject to a reserve
of fiscal year 2015 (FY15) appropriations
• As a result, there is no expectation of a reduction of second and/or
third term awards
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Limited Release of 2014-15 Awards
• A limited number of MAP grants have been released from
suspended status for students whose FAFSA receipt dates
were February 28, 2014 through and including March 5, 2014
• All MAP grants for eligible students with initial FAFSA receipt dates on
or after March 6, 2014 remain in suspense status
• To allow schools the opportunity to submit payment requests
for the released records, the first term priority claim deadline
has been extended to Friday, February 27, 2015
• All initial 2014-15 MAP first-term payment requests, including those for
records released from suspense status, must be submitted by 7 p.m.
(CT) on February 27 to be considered timely
Identifying Released Records
• There is no indicator in the MAP system that identifies
which student records were released
• The suspense flag ("S") is simply removed
• On the Filter Screen, enter the appropriate date range in
the Application Receipt Date fields to create a report of
student records that meet the criteria
• For example, to identify 2014-15 records being released from
suspension, enter February 28, 2015 - March 5, 2015 in the
required fields to create a list of students who had an application
receipt date (initial FAFSA receipt date) within that range
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